In the early 1970s, the ORFU requested the Otago University club to field a third senior team to avoid a bye. I was given the task of selecting a C team. The union rewarded us by scheduling our last game on the hallowed turf.
During the season, Duncan Laing developed the habit of poaching my trustees without telling me, thus I was often scrambling around for players and reserves. This day was no different.
The boys were about to run on to the ground, one short. A hurried search and a jersey and shorts were found - but no size 5 boots. I trotted out on to Carisbrook in bare feet, and what's more saw the game out from fullback. For someone who started his career on the frozen tundra of the Cromwell Recreation Ground in the 1940s, perhaps it was fitting to finish it on the Mecca of New Zealand rugby, even if it was in bare feet.
- Leo Smith
If we TV types dared to make an ever so slightly critical remark about "bad" Dunedin weather at the old ground then on my next visit complete strangers would come bustling up to say, "Cut it out. You should have been here yesterday."
Just to irk Otago people I once taunted on TV that the late afternoon winter sun streaming down the field into Gavin Hastings' eyes made it "too bright" for rugby. The bait was taken. My comment was later critically mentioned in an ODT editorial! I smiled to myself.
But I can look back and say I was there for "Wrecker" Smith's courageous game against the 1977 Lions. And I was there when Otago won the extra-time NPC thriller over North Harbour in 1992, and when they won the mid-weeker over South Africa in 1994. Or when Jeff Wilson was at his amazing best so many times.
When those days and many others unfolded, Carisbrook rang with true rugby rapture. And I always loved being there to be part of it.
- Commentator Keith Quinn
