Imagine this — 40,026 fans crammed into Carisbrook to watch an All Black-laden Otago side demolish Waikato 49-20 on a glorious October afternoon in Dunedin.
Brendon Timmins and Brendon Laney don’t have to imagine it — they played in the 1998 NPC final.
Professional rugby was yet to chip away at the relevance of the competition.
People still got the weekend off because no-one was paying half-million dollar mortgages and working two jobs to keep a roof over their heads. Social media was not stealing our attention and turning us into zombies. And rugby was still the No1 show.
Timmins started all 11 NPC games at lock for Otago in 1998 and was one of the unsung heroes of a star-studded team.
"Obviously, it was pretty special because we won," Timmins said.
"But right through from when I started in ’92, right through to ’98, and even into ’99, we were playing in front of 20-plus thousand every weekend. And we had such a following away as well.
"It was a really special time.
"You had some real superstars in that ’98 team, which you kind of don't see in the NPC these days, do you?"
The 1998 Otago team had 13 present or future All Blacks, and John Leslie and Laney went on to play international rugby for Scotland.
It was an all-star cast.
"Basically, our whole starting pack, bar John Blaikie and I, were All Blacks. And they held us all to a high standard.
"I would love to see the All Blacks have the opportunity to play in the NPC more. They're the players that lift the players around.
"I remember some of my best games were when I was marking Robin Brooke, who was the incumbent All Black lock in my position.
"And I really got up for those games because that was where I could gauge, you know, how far away am I?
"And the modern player doesn't get that."
Laney has fond memories of 1998 as well.
He scored 15 tries that season, or 16 if you count the one he got in preseason against Southland in Invercargill.
"I just remember running out there and you got this wave of energy from the embankment," Laney said.
"And Carisbrook was such a cool place to play rugby. The town was really invested in Otago rugby as well.
" We threw the ball around, we scored a lot of tries, so people were really getting some entertainment. But they were also watching Jeff Wilson and Taine Randell playing.
"People wanted to come along and watch those guys play."
A lot has changed.
For a start, there is barely anyone left in the stands. Otago’s average home crowd was about 1600 this season.
At that start of the campaign, they had one fringe All Black — prop George Bower, and he was rarely sighted.
Lock Fabian Holland and loose forwards Christian Lio-Willie and Oliver Haig have since been called in to train with the All Blacks.
But there has not been a lot of star power to entice people along.
Timmins wondered whether as a community "we've fallen out of love with the NPC".
"The players are certainly not working any less harder than what we did. If anything, they're working harder.
" I just think the move into professional rugby means that people have just got a little bit more blase."
"There's not that connection to the team like there once was."
The game is punctuated by stoppages these days.
The rugby is put on pause — often for a lengthy stretch — while officials pore over the footage to figure out if a try has been scored or there has been an infringement.
The officials get more decisions right now, but it has come at the cost.
The style of play has changed too. The rugby is more calculated than free-flowing, and defence dominates.
"I remember when I first started playing, you'd just smash rucks," Timmins said.
"So you just went ruck to ruck to ruck, and we gave it to those pretty boys out the back who were waiting for the ball.
"We created the space for them to run it. Well, there's not the space for them to do what they do now."
Timmins is not convinced something as simple as pushing back the offside line will create more space either.
"I don't know if the defensive line getting pushed back is going to make it any easier, because it just allows more time for the defence to shore up the gaps.
"It would be great to see less players in the backline.
"But how do you do that?
"Because then you’d get real space to see those beautiful runs.
"Some of the best runs you see in the game are from open play.
"We used to be able to create that sort of stuff from set play back in the day."
The NPC has played an important part in the development of New Zealand rugby but it is struggling to capture the public’s imagination.
Super Rugby hogs the headlines and scoops up the prime sponsors, while the NPC is battling to remain relevant.
So where to for the NPC?
" I think they're really struggling with that question at the moment," Laney said.
"I think we're going to probably see some unions, as bad as it sounds, and I hate to say it, but I think there's going to be some unions that may go by the wayside.
"That would be a crying shame but that may be the way it is."
TOMORROW: Club stalwarts have their say; women’s competition also faces challenges
