St Kevin’s will meet Mount Aspiring for a shot at elevation to division one in the Southern Schools Rugby Championship.
The Oamaru and Wanaka schools had strong wins to finish as the top seeds in the championship’s maroon and blue pools on Saturday.
They will now face each other in a playoff game in Ranfurly this Saturday, in the only game for the premier schools competition this weekend.
St Kevin’s finished top of the blue pool with a 26-14 win over Central Southland College in chilly conditions in Oamaru.
Coach Justin Fowler was rapt his team gave themselves a chance at promotion.
"Very, very happy with that," Fowler said.
"Certainly was a goal of ours to have a crack at that top six at some stage.
"Very proud of the boys. We’ve sort of won tough in the last couple of weeks, which has been good"
Playing at home in wet and slippery conditions, St Kevin’s controlled the second half to secure the win.
"When we managed to play some good territory, we looked good with the ball in hand, especially in that second half.
"Our set piece was a little bit shaky, but our ruck ball was good and our counterattack was very good.
"We scored probably three long-range tries in that second half."
It was a team performance, but first five Lachlan Neal controlled the game nicely, centre Kenton Tokai was big defensively and blindside flanker Liasiate Hausia was good with the ball and strong in the tackle.
In the other blue pool results, Waitaki Boys’ beat Maruawai/Menzies 59-10 in Gore, and South Otago beat John McGlashan College 2nds 63-0.
Mount Aspiring beat Taieri College 50-10 in the maroon pool.
Wakatipu beat King’s 2nds 50-12, and Otago Boys’ 2nds got home 30-15 against Cromwell College.
In division 1, John McGlashan 1sts beat Dunstan 32-17 on Saturday, and King’s 1sts had a 47-19 victory over Southland Boys’ 2nds on Thursday.
Southland Boys’ 1sts will play Otago Boys’ on Wednesday.
After this weekend’s playoff game, the competition will be split into divisions one, two and three for the second round.
Southland Boys 1sts and 2nds, Otago Boys’ 1sts, King’s 1sts, John McGlashan 1sts and the playoff winner will make up division one.
Dunstan have been relegated from division one and will compete in division two with Waitaki Boys’, Wakatipu, South Otago, Otago Boys’ 2nds and the playoff loser.
South Otago, King’s 2nds, John McGlashan 2nds, Cromwell, Maruawai/Menzies and Taieri will compete in division three.
