Just three years after the Otago Schools Rugby Championship was revamped into the Southern Schools Championship (SSRC), first XV rugby in the lower South Island has undergone another major change.
The catalyst for this change has been the formation of a new South Island Boys' Schools First XV competition.
King’s, Otago Boys’ and Southland Boys’ high schools will take part in the new competition. They will skip the first half of SSRC as the new competition runs concurrently.
The remaining 11 southern school first XVs will play in an SSRC qualification tournament.
They have been split into two pools — one of six teams and one of five teams — and will play everyone in their pool over the first five weeks.
After those five weeks, the top three from each pool will play each other while the remaining teams will play the opposite pool as well.
The top three teams will link up with King’s, Otago Boys’ and Southland Boys’ to play in SSRC division one.
The next three teams, and the highest ranked team from the bottom five, will make up division two along with the top two second XVs who play their own qualification competition.
Division three will be made up of the leftover four first XVs and the bottom two second XVs.
Waitaki Boys’ and St Kevin’s both find themselves in pool A to start the season and are scheduled to meet each other at the end of May.
WAITAKI BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL
Another top-six finish would be a dream for Waitaki Boys’ High School head coach Shane Carter.
The school lost to Southland Boys’ High School’s second XV in the division two final a year ago leaving them to finish sixth.
They have lost eight year 13 players from their 2025 squad.
"We’ve got a few returning boys from last year and a handful of new boys which always makes it fun," Carter said.
Brothers Ned and Ike Newlands-Carter will link up in the loose forwards and hooker Eikilau Toutai is another one to watch out for in what should be a quality forward pack.
Out wide, Chase Kennedy brings some experience to the midfield and Luke Harraway adds plenty of speed on the wing.
Carter said the team would need to start strongly as they hoped to qualify for division one.
"We need to be placed at the top of [the qualification tournament] to go through to a second round and play against the bigger schools and that’s our goal for the first part of the season."
The team were also aiming to win all of their interschool matches, he said.
ST KEVIN’S COLLEGE
Head coach Justin Fowler knows this will be a rebuilding year of sorts for St Kevin’s College.
Only seven players returned from their 2025 squad and “over half of the team" was in year 11 or 12, he said.
"We’ve got a fairly new team so there’s a bit of to be done yet but we’ll see how it goes.
“It’s an opportunity for those young ones to show what they can do and get into it it, it’ll be exciting to see."
In the backs, Ben Gillies will split time between 10 and 12 while Kenton Tokai will bolster the midfield.
Prop Wade Smith provides plenty of muscle up front and Flynn Sanford offers versatility at either lock or loose forward.
With such a young squad, development was the main goal for the season, Fowler said.
"We’re just looking to improve each week, really and see how it goes by the end of the season."
Last year, St Kevin’s lost to Waitaki Boys’ in the division two semifinal to finish seventh.
