They have a proud record playing international teams, having defeated South Africa and the British and Irish Lions.

Afterwards the Otago coach Charlie Saxton told the Taranaki captain Peter Burke that 'the better team lost'.

Laurie Mains appointed Mike Brewer when he was 20 years old as captain of Otago in 1985 to take over from Wayne Graham.

Mike Brewer and Laurie Mains worked on a plan for Otago to improve with the aim to win the National Provincial Championship by 1992.

[9] The Otago team had a forward pack including Gordon Macpherson, Richard Knight, Paul Henderson, Mike Brewer, Arran Pene and Brent Pope.

They also toured Argentina and played three games defeating San Isidro 28–15; Banco Nacionale 37-27 and a Mendoza Selection 25–21.

The Otago team, now coached by Gordon Hunter, reached the semi-final against North Harbour which was played at Carisbrook.

In the second half, North Harbour pulled the score back to finish with a 16 -16 draw prompting extra time.

"[23][24] Gordon Hunter (who also worked as a police detective) was asked a question by an English journalist in the post match press conference.

Early on in the game, during a lineout, Anton Oliver was hit from behind and turned and threw a punch at Craig Dowd, knocking a few teeth out.

[28] The game was played at a high pace and Josh Kronfeld, after being tackled, was taken from the field with a badly sprained ankle.

[30] Otago was ahead by 19–17 with minutes to go when referee Colin Hawke penalized Stu Forster and awarded a penalty try to Auckland to give them the game.

"[31] Arran Pene said of the game: "I was wide and left a gap for [Mark Carter] because I was going to slam him over the top of the ruck.

"[31] Marc Ellis was very upset by the loss commenting that "We had a cool team, a lot of bloody good guys, and Gordy Hunter was a great bloke as coach.

They won all the games defeating Cambridge University 47-23; London Irish 82-14; Scottish Development XV 44-19, England A 42-15, Bath 31-18 Northampton/Leicester 37-8 and Richmond 75-0.

Otago defeated Wellington 84-10, Northland 82-10, Southland 60-10 and North Harbour 39-8 in the round robin stage, and beat Taranaki 62-12 in the semi-finals.

[32] The Otago team coached by Tony Gilbert and captained by Taine Randell won the 1998 National Provincial Championship final with a resounding victory over Waikato at Carisbrook.

[29] Anton Oliver said of the team: "I can't recall, before or since, having played with a pack that was regularly as efficient, skilled and ruthless all round.

[35] Otago faced North Harbour in the semifinal at Albany after finishing fourth in the round robin winning 37–10.

In the second half, penalties kicked by Andrew Mehrtens and tries to Justin Marshall and Nathan Mauger took Canterbury to the full time score of 30–19.

The 10,000 Otago supporters who travelled north to Christchurch to watch the final were left disappointed by the result especially as they lost to Canterbury twice in the 2001 season.

[40] In the 2005 NPC semi-finals (played on October 14), Otago again defeated Canterbury to win with a 37–22 victory in Christchurch at Jade Stadium.

2011 was a significant year for Otago with the team playing its final season at Carisbrook before the mid-season relocation to the Forsyth Barr Stadium.

[53] Otago went on to win five of ten matches in the 2012 season and reach the Championship semi-finals where they defeated Tasman 41–34.

Otago would reach the Championship semi-finals for the second consecutive year, however it was Hawkes Bay who were once again victorious winning 29–24.

In August 2013, Otago overcame 56 years and 22 previous challenges of disappointment to again hold the log o' wood.

They beat North Harbour (28-14), Southland (33-22) and Waikato (38-7) and lost a further seven games to finish second last in the ITM Cup Championship.

[75] Otago defeated Taranaki 35–27 with Vilimoni Koroi scoring one try, kicking three touchline conversions and three penalties.

Sio Tomkinson, Adam Thomson and Jona Nareki all scored tries for Otago with Josh Ioane converting two of them and kicking two penalties.

The team coached by Tom Donnelly was expected to struggle against Taranaki (who had beaten Canterbury the previous week).