The All Blacks and Scotland clash during the famous Eden Park test in 1975. Photos / Photosport/YouTube
Ewen Chatfield's near-death experience at Eden Park in 1975 has an indelible place in New Zealand sports history.
The No. 11 batsman was lucky to survive, after being felled by a bouncer during a cricket test against England.
The risks of facing up to fast bowling have always been well known, particularly in the pre-helmet era.
But four months after that near-tragedy at New Zealand's most famous sports stadium, 30 international rugby players were asked to put their lives on the line by playing in what was basically a patchwork of paddling pools.
New Zealand v Scotland, 1975, quickly came to be known as the Water Polo Test after a deluge of rain flooded the surface. The All Blacks, showing remarkable skill in the conditions, won 24–0.
While the quirkiness of the occasion will never be forgotten, the dangers they endured also remain strong in the memory of some of those involved that afternoon.
The scene at Eden Park was extraordinary. Some grass was visible but other areas resembled a lake.
Make no mistake. Lives were at risk. And the outstanding All Black centre Bill Osborne even believes that a team mate saved his life during the game.
Indeed, Scotland wanted the game called off. And four decades on, referee Peter McDavitt and the legendary Scottish centre Jim Renwick say it is game that should never have been played.
This was an historic game in many ways.
It was the first home test in which the haka was performed, and the first test in New Zealand broadcast on television in colour.
It was also the only test the All Blacks played that year, a very unusual situation. And they played in white jerseys for the first time since a British team who played in dark blue toured New Zealand in the 1930s.
It is certainly a game you will never forget, when you've got people sitting in the bleachers with wet suits on.
Nearly 10 cm of water fell on Eden Park during the match day washing these milestones from the memory.
"It is certainly a game you will never forget, when you've got people sitting in the bleachers with wet suits on," says Andy Leslie, the All Black No. 8 and captain, from his home in Wellington.
"We went to the ground in the morning and it was good. When we came back, it was flooded.
"We were there ready to play…calling it off wasn't even a consideration for us as players. I was happy for it to go ahead – we didn't think any other way."
Leslie said he and coach JJ Stewart shielded the team from any debate about whether the game would actually go ahead.
"Scotland had the whole team involved in discussions…that didn't enter our dressing room at all, whether it was boots or flippers we were going to be wearing," Leslie says.
The 88-year-old McDavitt, who lives in a Kapiti retirement complex, bumps into Leslie now and then but the test hasn't come up in conversation.
McDavitt stands out when you watch the match replay, his yellow jersey almost glowing in the slosh.
On learning the test would be broadcast in colour, an acquaintance suggested he don one of the bright alternate playing jerseys used by the Wellington provincial side, a treasured memento he keeps to this day.
I was worried about players drowning. I spoke to both captains and said if there was any danger at all, that in consultation with them I would call the game off.
"I still think that game should have been called off," he says.
"But it was never going to be because it was the only test that year and the All Blacks were off to South Africa the next year. The All Blacks desperately wanted a test, and were going to play under any circumstances.
"I voiced my concerns to (NZRU chairman) Jack Sullivan directly - he came down to the dressing room.
"He said the Scottish management had agreed to play. I said 'no, I will decide whether we continue', and that knocked him back a bit.
"I was worried about players drowning. I spoke to both captains and said if there was any danger at all, that in consultation with them I would call the game off.
"The only reason the game continued was because of Any Leslie's captaincy. He made sure no player was in danger, if any player was face down in the water.
"If you look closely at the tapes, you'll notice the All Blacks never piled in."
His most vivid memory of the match is of Leslie tackling the great Scottish back Andy Irvine.
"They went scooting through the water and Andy had his hand under Irvine's chin to hold his face up out of the water," says McDavitt.
"That sort of thing went on all the time. New Zealand wanted that game to go ahead, and did everything they could to make it safe, so as not to give me an excuse to call it off.
"But I thought about calling it off every 10 minutes. It was obvious from the attitude of Mighty Mouse (Scotland captain Ian McLauchlan) that the Scots didn't want to be there."
It wasn't only the Scottish players who were unhappy with proceedings.
TV commentator Keith Quinn, who had caught a bus to the ground from his Te Atatu home, was due to make his call from on top of the No 1 stand roof. Loose tarpaulin is all that stood between Quinn and the elements, with his monitor and papers set to be lashed by rain.
He sought out Ron Don, the indomitable Auckland rugby chairman and a national rugby councillor, to request a new spot.
Don, who treated media like the enemy, told Quinn he could not budge.
"I was really angry, it was impossible to work properly up there," says Quinn.
"He said 'no, you stay up there, all the seats are booked'."
An Auckland official named Sherman Corser came to Quinn's rescue by finding him a seat at the back of the main stand, saying he would deal with any backlash.
Cables and gear were poked through a roof manhole, so Quinn could do his job while sitting amongst the crowd.
Behind the stand, technicians needed duckboards to get over the water which surrounded the television outside broadcast van. There were fears that water would get into the electrics, potentially endangering the TV staff and match coverage.
"In the morning, the Auckland union put out messages on 1ZB telling people to stay away from the game," recalls Quinn.
"It was far from a full house. Reports say 40,000 were there, although I think it was more like 35,000.
"I was far too busy dealing with Ron Don to notice if the game was close to being called off. But I do remember the Scots were more upset that the game had gone ahead.
"You had to marvel at the some of the skills though, particularly Bryan Williams (who scored two terrific tries) and Joe Karam kicking four out of four conversions."
There were 13 penalties awarded in the game, 11 of them going to Scotland, but none involved shots at goal. In the days before kicking tees, Karam performed a minor miracle by converting all four tries.
It was a most unlikely test match to have a 100 per cent kicking record.
"You made a little hole in the ground to place the ball…it wasn't easy," says Karam, who was playing the last of 10 tests before quitting for league.
"Funnily enough I also played in one of the other wettest games in history against Australia at the SCG a couple of years earlier.
"There was a hell of a lot of water at Eden Park but it was clean. In the Sydney game it was like a dairy farm which 500 cows had run over.
"For one of the kicks in that Sydney game…two of our guys dragged another one of our guys along the ground to make a bit of a runway for me. That's how bad it was.
"I personally didn't feel in danger at Eden Park. I didn't even get tackled. It was a pretty cruisy affair – on a fine day we might have scored 50 points against that Scotland team.
"It was quite amazing…the amount of rain was incredible.
"There was quite a bit of discussion that it might have to be cancelled, basically because of player safety. They were frightened that if someone got trapped in the bottom of a ruck they could drown."
And someone did get stuck in the bottom of a ruck, and he was frightened about drowning.
The powerful Osborne – who was elected New Zealand Rugby president last year – was making his test debut at the age of 20 on the way to becoming one of the All Blacks' finest midfield backs.
His parents Bill and Sue, who drove to Auckland from Whanganui to attend their first test, had to remove shoes and socks in order to wade through 30cm of water around the grandstand.
"It was the highlight of their lives, as well as mine," says Osborne, of his opening test.
He had replaced the legendary Bruce Robertson, who was injured, in a team named the previous weekend.
To uphold the amateur rules, the All Blacks assembled on Wednesday, giving them two legal days of practice although it was also traditional to immediately practice surreptitious lineout moves.
An overwhelmed Osborne found himself surrounded by his schoolboy heroes, men like Williams, Ian Kirkpatrick, Sid Going and Grant Batty.
It was the outstanding Southland flanker Ken Stewart who proved to be his hero that day.
"I chased a kick through and ended up under a ruck," recalls Osborne, who is retired in Tauranga after a stellar business career.
"There was so much weight on me that my head had gone under water.
"I can remember Ken Stewart grabbing me and pulling my head out of the water and saying 'this is no place for a young fella'.
"I reckon he saved my life. There was no way, if he hadn't grabbed my head out of the water and pulled me up, I could have probably got it out.
"I was in trouble, I was in oxygen debt and my head was getting pushed under water. I was awfully grateful to him."
Given that, was it too dangerous to play?
Osborne replies: "Geez, I don't know. In those days you played in all weather. Today it would be a health and safety risk.
"The ground wasn't muddy, it was still firm. Your springs stuck into it. But if you were on top you slid along.
"I banged into (Scotland back) Andy Irvine with the Lions in 2017…it always comes up in conversation, it was such a unique game for anyone who played in it. You always end up laughing about it.
"The kids bought a DVD of it for my 60th birthday - I'll look at it one day when they want a laugh."
Jim Renwick, who opposed Osborne in the centres, says from Hawick he has watched excerpts of the game numerous times.
He makes light of the Water Polo Test at times, yet deep down he doesn't think it is funny.
"I never played in anything like it…it should have been cancelled," says Renwick, one of the great Scotland backs.
"But we were leaving the next day, and a lot of people were turning up to watch.
"I was warming up in the changing rooms and someone said there's a bit of water on the pitch. I couldn't believe it when I ran out. It was up to my ankles… dangerous.
"It's the last thing you want to do – stand in ankle-deep water looking at the haka. Maybe that was a rain dance they were doing. If you dropped the ball it would float.
"My son, who played a bit of rugby, just can't believe it. He says 'How did you play in that dad? Did you go fishing?'
"In Scotland you do that – you can go tickling for young salmon in a burn.
"It devalued the game, even if it didn't seem like it at the time. I don't know what we were doing out there. You wouldn't play in that at second level."
Renwick says the Scotland team was well prepared. He recalls a wind which favoured the All Blacks in the first half fading away in the second, a stroke of bad luck for the tourists.
Brief bonds of survival were formed that day.
All Black prop Bill Bush, who packed down against McLauchlan, recalls fire engines pumping water away before the game.
"We thought 'we won't be playing today'. There were three or four fire engines there," he says from Christchurch.
"They carried on with the game but we thought there's no way. Even when we ran out, it was quite dangerous.
"Ian McLauchlan and I were trying to save one another in scrums.
"When scrums collapsed I'd say 'are you okay mate?' and pull his head up. Normally in those days you'd been trying to punch each other.
"Tane Norton (All Blacks hooker) had both arms around the props, and no way of getting his head up. We tried to keep one another up out of the water, opposition included.
"You could either turn your face sideways, turn the neck right around so your face was upwards, or lift one another out of the water it was so deep.
"McLauchlan was muttering about it, probably because we thrashed them. The longer the game went the deeper it got at one end of the field. I remember saying 'are you okay, still breathing?'
"Amazingly the skills were still pretty good and Bryan Williams scored a great couple of tries. She was an unusual game all right."
Bush certainly understands the Scottish view that the game should not have been played.
"I think Ron Don said there was no way the tickets could be paid back so we had to go on," says Bush, a coach driver who sometimes transports the Crusaders.
"It's really strange they didn't call it off. But a lot of things about the game were dangerous in our day.
"Health and safety would have stepped in today – no way would we have been allowed on the ground.
"We had a similar game in Sydney, in 1974, which should have been called off. Oh mate, it was a really cold wind that day, and the ground was muddy with a lot of straw in it."
Not all of the relationships were fleeting.
The affable Leslie and opposing loose forward David Leslie initially struck up a friendship because of their surname.
That friendship lasts to this day, and was strengthened when Andy's sons John and Martin started playing for Scotland in 1998.
Leslie was on hand to farewell the Scottish team at Auckland Airport while waiting for his own flight home the day after the sodden test.
But the weather wasn't giving up that easily, and Leslie's flight was cancelled.
Leslie and his wife Lesley, with a couple of acquaintances, rented a car and drove through the night, because the All Black captain had to open up his Wellington menswear store early Monday morning.
It was a very different rugby world back then, and things didn't come much more different than the Water Polo Test.
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