The New Zealand Secondary Schools Rugby Union will make changes to its procedures relating to the eligibility of players in the wake of issues raised in a Top 4 play-off match earlier this year.

In the match between New Plymouth Boys' High School 1st XV and Rotorua Boys' High School 1st XV played on August 28, two players were included on a signed team sheet for Rotorua who were not eligible to play in the tournament.

The changes came about after two ineligible players were included on a teamsheet. Photo: File.

The New Zealand Schools Rugby Union found that Rotorua had fielded two ineligible players, but allowed the team to progress to the final four because its investigation found they had not acted deliberately.

The pair had previously attended Rotorua Boys, but had left for a gap year before returning and re-joining the school, NZSRU says.

Under new eligibility rules applied this year, they should have been counted as new students.

Schools can only include six students new to the school in their squads for any given game – and they had eight for the New Plymouth game.

Rotorua went on to beat Scots 36-27 in the national first XV final on September 6.

Rotorua were disqualified from the Super Eight rugby tournament for a similar breach earlier in the season, but that tournament was run by a separate organisation.

Since then, an independent investigation by Peter Dale made a number of recommendations which have been adopted by the Secondary School Union for the 2016 season.

New Zealand Secondary Schools Rugby Union chairman Garry Chronican reiterated the breach of rules by Rotorua was not deliberate, and there would be no sanction.

'It's important that we learn from this incident and put in place robust new rules so there's no repeat of the issues we have just dealt with,” says Garry.

'We're all passionate about the game and we can fully understand the depth of feelings this issue has aroused. We're confident the new processes we're putting in place will make the rules easier to understand and apply.”

The Secondary School Union has decided Rotorua, as this year's National 1st XV Championship winners, would now be invited to attend the 2016 Sanix World Rugby Youth Invitational Tournament in April next year.