Both Otago teams had to settle for second place in the Southern Regional Sevens tournament staged in Timaru on Saturday.
The Otago men were beaten 12-5 by Tasman in the final while the women lost 14-12 to Canterbury.
While stumbling at the last hurdle was disappointing, both Otago teams qualified for the nationals in Rotorua in January.
Otago men’s coach Kane Dury was satisfied with his side’s campaign. The defending champions beat Southland 28-14 and North Otago 24-17 before coming unstuck against Tasman in their final pool match.
It led 24-0 but Tasman piled on 33 unanswered points to win 33-24.
In the semifinal, Otago scored a try in extra time to beat Canterbury 24-19 but Tasman proved too good in the final.
Tasman’s William Havill sealed the win when he took off inside his own half and fended off a couple of tacklers to score.
"Tasman is a really skilful team and were very good at the breakdown and we struggled, to a certain degree, to nullify their strengths," Dury said.
"When you don’t have the ball, it is pretty hard to score tries and Tasman was powerful and quick and did really well. They were just better than us on the day."
In the women’s final, an offside call by the referee handed the ball to Canterbury, which scored from the possession to seal the win.
Otago women’s co-coach David Latta was "very happy" with the outcome.
"There was a bit of a nervous time for a while," he said.
"It was a team effort. In sevens, you rely on the whole team to perform."
There would be a debriefing at training tomorrow. Then it would be a matter of training "pretty much through to the nationals" other than a few weeks off over the holiday period.