A Sassenachs side will take on the Spartans, a shadow Southland team, in a match at Kettle Park at 2pm on Sunday.
The game has been a staple on the pre-season calendar for many years but is being played slightly earlier this year.
Southland was keen to play the game this weekend because its club season finished last Saturday.
The Sassenachs side will not feature any players who will take part in the club semifinals at Hancock Park.
Otago coach Cory Brown said the game gave an opportunity to players to perform at another level and would be a good test for the side.
The Sassenachs side would include new Otago signing Josh Furno, who arrived in Otago on Monday.
The other warm-up game for the season was against Southland, to be played in Gore on August 4.
Otago had wanted to get another warm-up game organised but it has not eventuated.
Canterbury was committed to playing a Ranfurly Shield challenge against Mid Canterbury and also was facing Otago early in the Mitre 10 Cup, so preferred not to reveal too much through a pre-season game.
Tasman had played Otago in pre-season matches in recent years but was not coming to the party this season.
Brown said he would have preferred to get another pre-season game but would be able to live with having just the two warm-up games.
He said the final make-up of the Otago contracted squad would number about 30 and he was confident those Otago players involved in the Highlanders would be able to play in the opening game of the season, against North Harbour on August 17.
That, of course, depended on how deep the Highlanders went in the playoffs. If they made it all the way to the final on August 5, it was unlikely Otago players would front in the opening game.
Brown, who helped coach the New Zealand under-20 side to success at the world junior championships, said there were still a few places available in the Otago squad.
Australian loose forward Pat Sio had arrived in Dunedin and Brown said that, like any player, he had to play club rugby and would then have his chance to impress. He said Southern No8 Mike Mafi was definitely in the mix. He played some minutes off the bench for Harbour against University last Saturday.
Brown said club rugby had been quite competitive this season, although the one disappointment was the top four had emerged quite early and were set for the semifinals some weeks out.
It was concerning that University, which was normally a top-four side, had failed to make the top four, but it had been hard hit by injury.
There is an old saying that if university rugby is strong, then Otago rugby is strong, but Brown said students were scattered around most clubs these days so that was not necessarily true.
