Highlanders Schools Competition
Des Smith
, Chairman of the Highlanders 01st XV Executive Committee, has announced the securing of a major sponsor for the Highlanders 01st XV Competition in 2012.
I am delighted to announce that Fulton Hogan is the Major Sponsor of the Highlanders 1st XV Competition for 2012. The response from Nick Miller, the Managing Director of Fulton Hogan has been very positive, and we are grateful for their support.
The competition will be called the “Fulton Hogan Highlanders 1st XV Competition”.
The confirmation of our Major Sponsor now means the competition budget has been met.
Highlanders Secondary Schools 1st XV Competition
The Highlanders Secondary Schools competition was introduced in 2009 enabling the 12 best first XV’s from Otago, Southland and North Otago to play in the same competition for the first time.
This is brought together all of the Highlanders franchise partners top schools to play in an elite league on a home and away basis.
The competition then splits into 3 pools and semi-finals and finals ae played in each of these pools determining the franchises top side. 2009 saw Southland Boys take the title with SouthOtagoHigh School being a front runner for much of the competition.
Other schools are able to join the competition when the bottom team from each of the Provincial Unions is identified at the end of the season. The top local teams in the U18 competitions then have the right to apply to challenge their provinces lowest performer.
Thank-you to the support of the Otago Daily Times for their sponsorship of this competition.
Games are played on Saturdays in local communities and the brand of rugby played by Highlanders School teams is attractive to large numbers of the local rugby communities.
The main aim of this competition is to see schools playing other schools on an equal footing and to provide the best competition possible to enhance player development for the Highlanders region with a view to seeing Secondary Schools students advancing into the local academy systems and ultimately professional rugby.