The path to rugby's National 1st XV Championship is coming into focus as regional competitions reach their conclusion.
Just 15 schools remain in contention for the Top Four tournament in Palmerston North from September 5-7 after several regional 1st XV finals and national tournament qualifiers last weekend.
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The first ticket will be punched on Saturday when defending national champions Southland Boys' High travel to Nelson College's Waimea Road ground for the South Island final (kick-off 11am).
The boys from Stags Country won their second straight Southern Schools Rugby Championship last Saturday, overwhelming Dunedin's King's High School 32-15 in the final at Invercargill's Les George Oval.
First-five Mika Muliaina, the nephew of All Blacks Centurion Mils Muliaina, contributed 12 points with the boot.
A week earlier, SBHS avenged their only defeat of the league season - a 33-24 loss to Otago Boys' High on May 15 - with a 38-10 semifinal victory at home.
Nelson College will look to continue their undefeated season, currently 11-0-0, after captain Harrison Inch's 68th-minute penalty lifted them over Christchurch Boys' High 20-17 in the Crusaders Region Premiership final on Saturday, their fourth title in the last six years.
The semifinal lineups in the Chiefs and Hurricanes regions have also been set after the Wellington 1st XV Premiership, Central North Island 1st XV Rugby and Waikato and Bay of Plenty qualifying finals.
St Pat's Silverstream defeated Wellington College 31-12 for the Wellington title, their fifth in the last eight seasons, and will face Palmerston North Boys' High, who finished fifth in the Super 8 1st XV competition, on Saturday in the Hurricanes semifinals.
Feilding High School, who fell to Hamilton's St John's College 42-33 in the CNI final on Saturday, will play Gisborne Boys' High, who recorded just one win in the Super 8 season, in the other Hurricanes semifinal, while Napier Boys' High and Hastings Boys' High, who finished third and fourth in the Super 8, miss out.
But St John's and Super 8 champions Tauranga Boys' College will not be involved in Chiefs semifinals.
Despite winning the CNI final, the Johnnies did not qualify for the Waikato final, finishing behind St Paul's Collegiate, who they beat 31-24 in the semifinals, during the regular season. Hamilton Boys' High took care of St Paul's 57-21 to reach the Chiefs semifinals.
Tauranga, who routed HBHS 37-0 in the Super 8 final two weeks ago, were eliminated in the Bay of Plenty final last weekend, drawing with Rotorua Boys' High 20-20 but losing the first-try tiebreaker.
New Plymouth Boys' High, who finished sixth in the Super 8, and Pukekohe High School, who defeated Wesley College 10-5 in the Counties Manukau qualifier in July, are the other Chiefs semifinalists.
Further north, North Harbour's Westlake Boys' High and Rosmini College, Northland's Whangarei Boys' High and Auckland 1st XV 1A finalists St Kentigern College and Kelston Boys' High remain alive to be the Blues Region qualifier.
Westlake, the beaten Top Four finalists a year ago, face Rosmini in the North Harbour 1st XV 1A final at North Harbour Stadium (kick-off 1.30pm), while St Kentigern and Kelston meet at Eden Park on Saturday (kick-off 2.20pm).
The Auckland champions will play Whangarei on Wednesday, with the Blues final against the Harbour winner on August 31.
Kelston needed three straight bonus-point wins and other results to go their way to scrape into the Auckland 1A semifinals, where they upset Auckland Grammar 17-11 on Saturday. St Kentigern took out Sacred Heart College 26-18.