The Otago Schools Rugby Championship, which involves first XV teams from Otago and Southland Boys’ High School, is increasing from 12 teams to 18 with three additional teams from Southland.
Otago Secondary School Rugby Council chairman Greg Heller said the participating schools were unanimous in their support for the expansion, which will include greater representation from Southland.
National champions Southland Boys’ were the sole Southland representative last season. But they will enter a second XV this season, while Central Southland College and a combined Maruawai College and Menzies College team will enter the competition for the first time as well.
King’s High School and John McGlashan College will also enter a second XV, and Cromwell College also enter the fray.
Heller said the expansion was "something that has been bubbling away" in the background for years.
"We did propose it three years ago but it didn’t have the support of the schools," he said.
But both King’s and John McGlashan were keen to field a second XV and Southland wanted greater representation, so the mood had changed.
Travel would increase, which was acknowledged by Heller.
"Some schools were a little worried about the travel. But, at the end of the day, even without those additional teams, there was still going to be significant travel.
"We are working to hopefully secure a sponsor ... and we hope to be able to subsidise, through grants and that, some of the travel."
The competition will be staged on King’s Birthday and Matariki weekends.
"We proposed a small range of competition structures and we landed on [this one], and the caveat with that was we would play on [those weekends].
"But the vast majority supported the format that we have landed on."
To better reflect the schools taking part, the competition will be known as the Southern Schools Rugby Championship.
The six expansion teams will join division two, which will now be split into two pools — blue and maroon. Division one just has one pool.
During round one, each pool will play a five-game round-robin beginning on May 11.
The winners of the blue and maroon pool will play a final, with the winner automatically moving up to division one. The bottom-placed division one team will be relegated to division two.
In the second round, the three pools will play another five-game round-robin. The points from round two will be used to determine the playoff positions.
Teams ranked from 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 and 13-16 will play semifinals, while the 17th and 18th placed teams will playoff to determine the ranking for the 2025 season.
Division finals will be played on August 17.
