On the road: Deep in Todd's Own Country

By TONY WALL

It is that time, on our 2000km trip from south to north, to close one eye and take a good hard look at Cantabrians.

The starting points are easy: Jade Stadium in Christchurch, home of Canterbury rugby, and the flat, featureless township of Rangiora.

Our goal: to find what makes people here so one-eyed by tracking the object of their hero-worship, Todd Blackadder.

Curiously, at Jade Stadium (I'll always remember it as Lancaster Park) we find a man at the heart of the Canterbury sporting empire who does not root for the home province.

Is head groundsman Chris Lewis a heretic? No, he's just from Otago.

We spoke as a howling southerly and driving rain blew across the turf.

"The whole one-eyed thing gets up my nose," said Mr Lewis. "I wish they'd lose - but they never do."

He admitted to hoping that Canterbury does poorly in the Shell Cup cricket because he is sick of preparing pitches for only 200 spectators.

Mr Lewis has been in the job four years but has never met The Man. "People say he must be a good bloke."

He has no time for Canterbury fans like the boy who was infamously photographed holding a placard saying "I Hate You Auckland."

"He should never have been allowed into the ground."

Mr Lewis reckons Canterbury's bitterness towards Auckland stems from a simple emotion: jealousy.

"It dates back to the period of Auckland's rugby dominance, but that's long over, and there's no reason for them still to be like that."

Maybe it runs deeper. Every city has its secret pride. Dunedin thinks it's the brains of the country, Wellington the vision and Auckland the future. But Christchurch prides itself on being the heart of the country.

It likes to think some of the blood pumping through its heart is blue - the black sheep of middle-class England who came on the first four ships have been elevated to heroes. But some of the blood is red - the colour of the Canterbury jerseys and the baying crowd at Lancaster Park.

Canterbury dominates the South Island the way Auckland does the North. It instinctively dislikes its rivals, as only a region that feels born to lead can.

So when it breeds an All Black captain, its pride is intense.

In the dairy across from Lancaster Park, I eat a cold pie for old times' sake before heading into downtown Christchurch to check out a new official Canterbury sports bar, established in the old Avon picture theatre with rugby union support.

The Holy Grail opened a few weeks ago. It has a 7.5m by 6.5m screen, reputedly the biggest in New Zealand after Imax - perfect for checking every nook and cranny of Toddy's craggy face.

If anything, outside Christchurch the parochial pride intensifies. Blackadder lives in a sprawling home on the outskirts of Rangiora, that small Canterbury farming town.

In these parts, Todd (Blackadder, that is) is The Man. They adore him. The Canterbury and All Black captain's face can be seen everywhere, especially in his hometown of Rangiora - a flat, featureless township 27km north of Christchurch.

They informally renamed the place Blackadderville after Canterbury won the Super 12 again last year.

In Rangiora, we meet 80-year-old Joan Belcher, president of the Pride of Canterbury Rugby Fan Club, who is wearing red and black socks and has a knitted doll called Little Toddy.

"We've got about 22 members," she says. "We're mostly older women - one girl's a dwarf and another's spastic."

The women take shortbread to the Canterbury rugby team's training sessions, and always see the players off at the airport when they travel.

When Mrs Belcher, who is friends with Toddy's granny, needed medical treatment in Auckland once, she told the medics: "Don't get my precious Crusaders' blood mixed up with that Blue and White stuff."

But her club has a rule: no booing at games, even if Auckland is playing.

Mrs Belcher's favourite players are Toddy and Andrew Mehrtens. They're nice boys, she says, and always remember to return their shortbread containers. "Toddy says it's the best shortbread he's tasted."

All is not well in Blackadder's hometown, however. A rival supporters' group, the Todd Blackadder Housewives' Appreciation Society, has formed, and Mrs Belcher does not approve. "They hold up signs saying 'Marry me, Toddy' - it embarrasses him, he's a country boy.

"They're way out, but our group is straight up and down."

We drive past the Blackadder property on the way out of town, but He is not in today.

Feature: On the road with Tony and Mark