John McGlashan College adopted a more conservative game plan in the second half and it paid off with a 27-13 win against Waitaki Boys' High School in an Otago premier schools fixture in Oamaru on Saturday.
The visitors trailed 13-12 at the break and had largely been the architects of their own demise.
The team was eager instead of patient, rash rather than thoughtful and simply tried to play too much rugby. It was nothing a good halftime talk would not put right and the defending champion re-emerged with more focus.
"We played poorly in the first half," team director Mike Idour said.‘‘We couldn't find our men in the lineout and our backs were trying all these dazzling moves and finishing well behind the advantage line.
"We changed it up at halftime. We tried to play more sensible football and nothing too spectacular.
"We kept going forward and the tries came, eventually."
The turning point was when the captain Rory Ferguson crashed over early in the second spell.
John McGlashan kicked the ball up-field, chased hard and stole the ball at the breakdown.
It drove the ball towards the line and then moved it wide to Ferguson, who bumped off a couple of tacklers on his way towards the left corner.
He scored a second later in the game and hooker Brett Kingsbury also scored two tries in a fine game.
"We knew we had to score first in the second half to subdue them and they just gradually ran out of puff, as we thought they would."
In the other matches, King's High School destroyed Kavanagh College, 60-11; South Otago High School thumped Mt Aspiring College, 73-0; Dunstan High School edged out Otago Boys' High School 2nd XV 27-23 and St Kevin's College beat Taieri College 22-12.
