The Otago Daily Times counts down the 150 greatest moments in Otago sport.
No 8: Otago's glorious win in NPC final (1998)
There may never be another occasion like that during and after Otago's national championship rugby triumph in 1998.
It was as if someone from above had written the script for the final. It was a golden October Sunday afternoon with temperatures in the mid 20s, it was the province's 150th anniversary and Carisbrook was crammed with 40,026 fans.
They were excited but they were also a little nervous because Otago had three times been the beaten finalist since it had won its only previous national title in 1991.
Otago had swept all before it on the way to the final. It had amassed 60 or more points in four games, 40 or more in seven.
Against Wellington it produced arguably the finest performance by any Otago side as it swept to an 84-10 win. It was simply sublime. Taranaki was demolished 61-12 in the semifinal.
Waikato, so often Otago's nemesis, remained and, while there were anxious moments early in the game as loose forwards Josh Kronfeld and Isitolo Maka left the field injured, Otago gradually took command.
It scored seven tries to two and had not the departing John Leslie been given the honour of trying to convert the last try, Otago would have again passed the half century. Instead, it won 49-20 and Otago partied through Sunday night and throughout then next day, which happened to be Labour Day.
Coach Tony Gilbert had Otago playing at its peak. The personnel included 13 present or future All Blacks - Jeff Wilson, Tony Brown, Byron Keller, captain Taine Randell, Kronfeld, Maka, Kupu Vanisi, Simon Maling, Kees Meeuws, Anton Oliver, Carl Hoeft, Joe McDonnell and Andrew Hore - and Scotland internationals Leslie and Brendan Laney.
"It's all yours, Otago," Waikato captain Ian Foster said at the presentations. Springbok coach Danie Craven had uttered the same words after the tumultuous 1956 series with the All Blacks but with sourness, not Foster's good grace.
"This is a magic day for us, for everyone in Otago," Randell said, amid prolonged cheers from the crowd before he and his team-mates set off on a lap of honour.
Otago's victory was the biggest in a first division final. The season statistics made impressive reading. Otago scored 521 points (67 tries) to 216 (25 tries). Brown scored a record 196 points and Laney equalled Terry Wright's 1994 NPC record of 15 tries.
The next day there was a special parade in the Octagon as the fans and the players reflected on a season like no other.
Years later, Gilbert and senior players reflected on the self-belief and skills which had enabled Otago to be the powerhouse of New Zealand rugby that season.
Many believed Otago was on the verge of a rugby dynasty but the momentum was checked by the preparations for the 1999 World Cup - in which Otago had nine players in the All Blacks - and performances dropped as leading players gradually left the province.
Otago has not won the NPC title since but no-one who was there will forget the sense of provincial pride at Carisbrook on October 25, 1998.
