South Otago High School's 10 game winning streak came to an abrupt end in Dunedin on Saturday with a crushing 49-5 loss to John McGlashan College.
And that is not a typo.
John McGlashan team director Mike Idour was not particularly surprised by the outcome.
''We've been playing well all season. They have, too, but if you look at the points differential, you'll see we are well, well ahead,'' he said.
''I figured today [Saturday] we needed to prove something. I think we did.''
The home team led 18-5 at the break. South Otago perhaps had the better of the set pieces, though.
''They were as good if not better [at the set pieces] but really we just had too much capability and too much intuition and skill.''
Where John McGlashan had a real edge was at the breakdown with loosie Rory Ferguson having a huge game. Centre Josh Timu came up with some handy turnovers as well.
The two locks, Sam Moir Grace and Woody Kirkwood, got through an enormous amount of work.
''Some of the tries were outstanding. There was some great intuition to know where the gaps were and they were superb.''
South Otago coach Adam Whaanga accepted his side had been comprehensively outplayed.
The team missed touch too often and that proved costly.
''I think out of five missed kicks, they scored four times. But it was probably more about them than us, really,'' Whaanga said.
''They just capitalised on our errors. I was actually quite pleased with our set piece.
''We did lose a couple of boys early on which did not help. But at the end of the day they scored when they got opportunities.''
The two sides are very likely to meet in the final and Whaanga is confident he can patch up morale in time.
In other games, the Otago Boys' High School Second XV beat Dunstan High School 38-31, Mt Aspiring College beat the Otago Boys' Third XV 43-33, and West Otago beat Taieri College 31-30.
The King's v Waitaki Boys' game was deferred.
