The event: Otago v North Harbour
The place: Carisbrook
The date: October 5, 1991
Following Otago is a mix of pleasure and pain. There are the highlights, and what seem too many lowlights.
In the early 1980s, Otago was all over the show.
The side under Lee Smith had a good year in 1981 but it dropped off the pace in 1982, winning just four games and beating Bay of Plenty to make sure it could stay in the first division.
But that brought Laurie Mains on board, starting the march to glory.
Mains slowly built a side around solid southern men like David Latta and Richard Knight, mixed with talented backs like John Timu and Greg Cooper.
By 1991, the team was firing on all cylinders.
It started the national provincial championship with a win over Waikato, only to stumble the following week against Counties.
But then the side got on a roll, and never lost another game.
Yours truly though was not there to see it.
Overseas shores beckoned, or more precisely dingy pubs, and a crummy flat, in London.
Remember those were the days before the internet or cheap overseas phone calls.
A one-hour trip on the Underground was required to pick up a magazine to find Otago had beaten Bay of Plenty - five days after it actually happened.
Walking round the back of the Hofbrahaus tent at the Munich Beer Festival, looking like a complete intellectual in a dirty Speight's T-shirt, some woman dashed up to say Otago had beaten Auckland.
How she knew is a mystery, but it sure made the beer taste better.
That just left Wellington and North Harbour to beat for Otago to become champions.
Wellington was conquered, with Mike Brewer - fresh from a rejection from the All Blacks camp because of injury - coming on to see Otago home at Athletic Park.
So now it was just North Harbour.
A large crowd packed in - 24,000 - and it was the final game in front of the old Main Stand at Carisbrook, which was to be pulled down the following summer.
Otago scored two tries in the first half thanks to Marc Ellis - playing on the wing - and veteran first five-eighth John Haggart.
North Harbour kept it close, but when wing Paul Cooke scored after an Arthur Stone chip kick with time virtually up, the glory was all Otago's, with a 26-10 win.
The news filtered through that morning in London.
Elation followed.
A trip to Turkey to see the white terraces at Pamukkale was next on the agenda: it was said to be one of the most dazzling sights in the world.
Sure it was good, but compared with seeing Otago glory at Carisbrook ? No competition, really.
