The Otago premier schools structure was revamped this year and the result was a much more even tournament.
There was the odd blowout towards the end of the season but the worst of the mismatches just did not happen — and that was by design, Otago Secondary Schools Rugby Council chairman Greg Heller said.
"I’m happy with the way things went," he said.
"We had teams starting in two ranked pools this year. That still allowed the 12th-ranked team to win the competition if they were good enough because we had that little promotion-relegation step between the first and second rounds."
Most importantly, it also protected the weaker co-educational schools from playing the likes of Otago Boys’ or King’s.
Last year there were some horrendously one-sided games and "three or four defaults" when teams decided it was not in their interest to get absolutely clobbered. There were no defaults this year.
"It certainly helped to minimise the blowouts. Yes, we had a couple of games where the scores were large.
"But for the most part the great bulk of games were competitive.
"Within reason any team could have beaten another and that was evident in the first round with a couple of upsets.
"That probably dictated who went up and who went down."
Heller said it was too early to say whether there would be any changes made for next season. The formal feedback process has not been completed yet.
"But anecdotally the feedback has been positive," Heller said.
"We signalled to our schools last year for this year’s competition that we would like to have a framework in place for two to three years before we make wholesale changes again and I think that will be the case.
"So I don’t think we will see too many changes to the existing competition structure."
Heller said the OSSRC would meet in mid-October to discuss the feedback and will seek to consolidate the playing structure for next season by late this year or early next year.
"That will give teams confidence to go ahead and plan for their 2021 campaigns."
