The last time Otago Boys’ played in the tournament, the team chalked up a series of some very one-side victories.
The worry is the province’s leading rugby school will be too strong again.
But reassurance has come from a very unlikely corner, with coach Ryan Martin moving to play down his side’s potential dominance this season.
"We are pretty young this year, especially in the tight five,’’ Martin said.
"So we are actually pretty excited about being back in the grade. The premier colts is a very, very tough and uncompromising grade.
"It probably changed the way we played a little bit. We became quite defence-orientated.
"So we felt, with the age of our guys, that it was better we put them up against their age equivalent.’’
Martin felt Otago Boys’ would be able to work more on "attack’’ which will frighten some of the smaller co-educational schools.
There is every chance Otago Boys’ will be 100 points better than the likes of Kavanagh College, which battled last year.
There are also perhaps some safety concerns. Otago Boys’ will have an enormous pack in comparison to some teams.
However, Martin said the benefit of playing in a lower grade was he could rotate players more.
That means fringe players, who would otherwise spend most of their time on the sideline, will get more opportunities. That should help mitigate safety risks and help keep the games more competitive.
"When we were in the colts grade it felt like we were playing a test match every Saturday. We were fighting for every point ... so it was hard to get the bench on.
"So we will be using quite a bit of rotation in the squad and hopefully that will create heaps of competition for spots as well.’’
Both King’s High School and Otago Boys’ have two teams in the grade. The schools’ top sides are required to ring-fence 19 players. Those players are not allowed to drop down to the second XV but everyone else can flit between the two teams.
King’s First XV and John McGlashan shape as Otago Boys’ leading competitors.
King’s defeat McGlashan 10-8 in a tense final last year. Both schools appear to have closed the gap on Otago Boys’ but time will tell how much of a margin remains.
This season the 12 teams are divided into two pools of six. Each team plays all six teams in the other pool in the opening round. The teams are then split into a top six and bottom six.
South Otago High School, Waitaki Boys’ High School and Otago Boys’ Second XV all have aspirations to make the top six and shape as the most likely to join Otago Boys First XV, King’s First XV and McGlashan in the top six.
Mt Aspiring College, Dunstan High School and King’s Second XV shape as the best of the rest with Taieri College and Kavanagh College likely to battle. St Kevin’s College struggled last year but players have been together since November and they might be on the improve.