IF it were not for a neighbour Grant Nisbett may well have been part of the Dunedin university scene.
Nisbett was a promising rugby player when he left school and had two options on the table.
"I was weighing it up and wanted to get down to Dunedin and the university scene. But a neighbour knew Sir Lance Cross, who in those days was the head of the NZBC sports service," he said.
"So I applied and became a sports cadet at the NZBC on the last day of 1968."Nisbett played in the forwards for his beloved Poneke club and also played senior cricket for Kilbirnie.
However, by the time he was 22 he decided he could not play sport and also report on it.He gave up playing and went to the sideline with the NZBC and to start with was on radio.
To get better at commentating Nisbett polished his trade on the sidelines of local sport.
"Now and again I would take a little tape recorder down to the sideline of a game and do a commentary on a game. I would make sure I was a long way away from people.
"I would get people I knew to listen back to it. I did it for rugby and also for track and field. I finished up doing the track and field in 1982 at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane."
Two years after his Brisbane experience, Nisbett did his first test at the old Lancaster Park in Christchurch as the All Blacks got home 10-9 over France.
"They decided in their wisdom to make Keith Quinn an administrator and so that left them short-handed. It went OK and then we went to a dual commentary. Keith came back into it and then John McBeth came along and there were three of us.
"Those were the days where the coverage was not what it is like now. There was just one NPC game televised in those days. All games were played during the day."
When Sky Television came along, Nisbett jumped ship and said it was simply a no-brainer as Sky was going to get all the rugby.He has been there ever since and still enjoys his job.
"I suppose it is one of those jobs that the more you do it the better you get. When I first started off [on television] it was a lot different to radio. You don’t have to say as much because people can see the game. It took me a wee while to get used to that.
"It is an art and is a specialist thing to do. A lot of people don’t realise but when you put the headphones on there are a lot of people talking to you.
"You’ve got the producer talking to you, the director, then the guy sitting beside you, the guy down on the sideline, then you get the TMO chiming in. It is pretty tough but you get used to it."
In any season, Nisbett will commentate about 50 games.He arrives at the ground about two to three hours before kick-off and admits even now there are still some nerves.
"There is still a bit of an edge there, especially for the big games, but perhaps not as much as there used to be. You still have to do the hard yards though.
"I update all my stats, like to check all the milestones coming up. You don’t want to bombard people with information but want to just offer some interest to the game.
"I remember speaking to Bill McLaren once and he would spend hours looking through statistics. But as he said, you would only end up using maybe 5-10% of it."
Nisbett said highlights of his 299 tests so far would be the World Cup finals the All Blacks won in 2011 and 2015, the Baby Blacks’ win in 1986, winning a series in South Africa in 1996 and the performance in the wet at Athletic Park in 1996 when the All Blacks beat Australia 43-6.
"You get to see some great games. But I’ve been to Twickenham three times and the All Blacks have lost so that is never nice. There are always going to be bad games. Low scoring or penalty-fests.
"The travel is part of it and you get used to it. But you get to go to the same countries. People say to me that Barcelona is a great city. But never been there. Ask me about Johannesburg, London and Cardiff. Yep, been there."
He said the game had changed not only in going professional but because of different laws making it too hard to compare eras.
"Who now can remember we did not used to have lifting at the lineout?"
He did not regard himself as an All Black cheerleader as there were supporters of other teams always watching.
As for clangers, he said nothing comes easily to mind.
"Of course, there is always that intercept where a guy is running 80m and you don’t know his name so you just trot out all the cliches you can until you find his name."
He once called referee Paddy O’Brien, Paddy O’Donnell at a game for a while after working with O’Donnell in radio in Wellington.Nisbett said working on the proper pronunciation of names was important to him.
"You should pronounce names right as that is their names. You’ve got to get it right. You can’t guess. If you look at the last World Cup I had a board behind me with how the names were said phonetically. I have rung embassies to get the proper way to say names."
Nisbett still loves to go and stand on the sideline of club rugby and watch Poneke and is a keen lawn bowler.
As for for the future, Nisbett (67) said he wanted to continue. He was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit earlier this month, which he said was a tribute to longevity.
His family, wife Toni, who died of cancer in 2015 and daughters Brooke and Kirstie have been very supportive, he said.
"As long as Sky are happy and it seems to be going pretty well with them I want to continue. You are pretty lucky, really, when your job is also your passion."