The most significant moment of Keith Murdoch's international rugby career was the last.

It was 2 December 1972 in Cardiff, the day he made his 27th appearance for New Zealand's All Blacks against one of the all-time great Wales teams.

All Blacks half-back Sid Going chipped the ball forward close to the touchline.

Four, five, six All Blacks rushed forward, "like a great black blanket" said commentator Bill McLaren.

The ball fell to the 17st (110kg) Murdoch before he launched himself at the try line as three Wales players approached.

The try was awarded, even though the Wales players insisted the ball had not crossed the line. The score: Wales 0, New Zealand 10.

Murdoch emerged from a pile of red and black shirts, handlebar moustache unruffled, with the ball in his hand. There was no expression of joy on the face of the 29-year-old as he jogged away from his team-mates.

The match ended Wales 16, New Zealand 19; Murdoch's try - the only one he scored for his country - had made all the difference.

It would be the last time he'd appear on a rugby field.

It's not clear what exactly happened at the Angel Hotel in central Cardiff a few hours after the match finished but it ended up with a security guard at the hotel, Peter Grant, being punched in the face, and Murdoch being sent home by New Zealand rugby officials a day and a half later.

The players, reports would later say, were upset they had not done more to try and stop him being expelled.

He was the first All Black to be sent home for indiscipline and the move shocked players and fans. "Exit the wild man," the Daily Mail's headline said the day after his departure, "leaving one all-black eye behind."

Different versions of the story exist. Had Murdoch punched Grant after being refused entry to the bar? Had Grant been struck by accident as he tried to stop Murdoch hitting team officials?

It was not out of character for Murdoch, whose reputation as a hard drinker able to throw his weight around was already well established. Earlier in the All Blacks' tour, a journalist said Murdoch had assaulted him.

Murdoch's whole job was to stand firm and fight back. As a prop forward, he was the one who would take the full pressure of the scrum on his shoulders, and his size stood out at a time when bulky rugby players were few and far between.

There's also the (true) tale of how he once needed to move a broken-down car away from the road, so he tied a rope around its tow bar and pulled it himself.

But there were also tales of his shyness, his inability to fit in. Murdoch was also seen "a big, jovial chap with a devilish sense of humour", Ron Palenski, a junior journalist on the 1972 tour, told the BBC.

Many more such stories emerged after his death, aged 74, was announced on 30 March.

The dust-up at the Angel Hotel made headline news in the UK and New Zealand, and the press pack in Auckland camped out at the airport to await Murdoch's return.

He never made it there. It's believed he swapped flights in Singapore, after shaving his moustache to avoid detection, and flew instead to Perth in Western Australia. From there, he retreated to the wilderness of the Outback and disappeared.

Murdoch never explained why he did it, nor why he chose to abandon his rugby career. The lack of satisfactory explanations, and Murdoch's own eagerness to avoid the press, means that many gaps remain in Murdoch's story, gaps that at times have been filled by half-truths and speculation.

There were only four recorded encounters with him in the almost 46 years after he boarded the flight from London.

In the years after Murdoch's disappearance, there had been rumours he had moved to the middle of nowhere in Australia. New Zealand rugby officials had tried to trace him, with no luck.

Then, in 1974, the New Zealand rugby journalist Terry McLean managed to trace him to an oil drilling site near Perth.

Their encounter did not go well.

The first words Murdoch said to him, according to the report McLean produced for The Herald, were: "Just keep moving." Murdoch then turned to McLean's driver and said: "Who brought this so and so up here?"

McLean took the advice and returned to New Zealand. Murdoch, too, kept moving, and he was next seen six years later.

While he was working on a farm owned by friends in Otago, on the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island in 1980, the friends' three-year-old son was found unconscious in their swimming pool.

The boy's mum dragged the boy out of the water and Murdoch immediately gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, saving his life.

Ron Palenski, in his book chronicling the history of New Zealand rugby, said a reporter from the local newspaper the Timaru Herald heard of the rescue and visited the farm to get the whole story.

Murdoch was nowhere to be seen, and shortly afterwards he left for Australia.