First, as a player with both Otago and the All Blacks. Then, as a coach with Otago and again the All Blacks.
Mains said, as a coach, it was a ground where Otago fashioned a great record in the late 1980s, and in the three tests he coached the All Blacks on the ground, they were undefeated.
"The Bledisloe Cup game in 1993 was a great game and not just for the result and the atmosphere at the ground. The whole week in the lead-up to the game the atmosphere was amazing around the city. You had the tent city at Bathgate Park and the whole town got involved," he said.
The All Blacks won the game 25-10 in front of 38,000 people.
The game was played under a cloudy sky, and Mains said not many games at the ground were affected by poor weather.
"In all of the years, there has only been a handful of times when the game has been affected by wet weather.
"It is the sort of ground where the wind predominantly does not affect the game. It doesn't blow straight down the ground.
You usually get that wind from the south, which blows across the grounds, making it fair for both teams."
With Otago, Mains started coaching the side in 1983, and the blue and golds were near the bottom of the first-division ladder. Otago began to gradually climb up the table and eventually won the title in 1991.
Mains said the crowds started coming back to Carisbrook and players gained a cult following.
"There was the Steve Hotton fan club and the Brent Pope fan club. They came in their blue suits and every time they scored, they would go out and go and do their down and ups for the team.
"In 1988 I remember the team played good rugby the entire year. I think we scored something like 45-48 tries and had only 10-12 scored against us. It was a year when the crowd used to shift at halftime from one end to the other."
Mains said players such as Richard Knight and Hotton epitomised what Otago rugby was about - "leaving everything you have got out there on the paddock, playing your heart out all the time".
He said there were great combinations who played for Otago, including the loose forward trio of Mike Brewer, Paul Henderson and Pope, inside backs Dean Kenny, Lindsay Smith and John Haggart, and the locking duo of Knight and Gordon Macpherson.
At the end of Mains' first year in charge of Otago, Carisbrook was dug up after it had become a mud bath, and drainage improved.
"That was all done by volunteer labour, led by Bill Townsend and the late Peter Johnstone. We used to call them Dad's Army. But that was a huge job they did."
Mains also paid tribute to the work of John Dowling and the late Bill Auld, who set up a representation liaison committee to help support the team.
Mains may have fond memories of Carisbrook but he is an enthusiastic supporter of the new Forsyth Barr Stadium.
"It is the best rugby stadium in the world and I've been to all of them."
Name: Laurie Mains
Role: Southern, Otago and All Black coach
Favourite Carisbrook memory: 1993 Bledisloe Cup match
