Otago Boys' High School Second XV climbed one place in the standings with a shut-out at Littlebourne on Saturday.
It beat the Waitaki Boys' High School First XV 22-0 in a commanding defensive performance in the Otago secondary schools competition. It has leapfrogged South Otago High School, which lost 34-17 to leader King's High School, to take the third qualifying spot.
The defending champion, John McGlashan College, had already sewn up second place and Mt Aspiring College qualified in last place for the top-six playoffs.
Both schools had completed their round-robin games and did not play during the weekend.
The bottom four sides played each other. Dunstan High School registered a 43-25 win against St Kevin's College on its home turf, while Taieri College snapped its eight-game losing streak with a 52-25 win against the winless Kavanagh College, in Mosgiel.
Otago Boys' coach Brian Ashwin was thrilled with his side's effort, particularly on defence.
''I was very happy with our tackling.
You have to be happy when the opposition scores nil. We had good line speed for a lot of the game.''
Otago Boys led 15-0 at halftime. Winger Michael Manson scored two tries. The second came about due to some good defensive pressure. He nabbed an intercept and galloped 60m to score.
Fullback Isaak Te Hiwi scored a fine second-half try to stretch the lead, and first five-eighth Marc Cormack slotted two conversions and a penalty.
Ashwin said flankers Tim Dippie and Jesse Vaafusuaga made plenty of tackles, while Cormack plugged the corners and kept the defence alert with his running game.
Waitaki held on to the ball for long periods but was unable to find many holes in the defence.