Auckland-born Luc Mullinder left with his parents for Canada before ever playing rugby but his 120kg, 193cm frame has provided him with a pathway in American Football and this weekend he makes a Kiwi first.
Mullinder will apparently be the first New Zealander to play in the Grey
Cup final, the Canadian equivalent of the NFL's Superbowl, when he runs out for the Saskatchewan Roughriders against the Winnipeg Bombers tomorrow.
The final of the league for the Grey Cup donated by Governor-General Earl Grey in 1909 is to be held on the neutral ground of Toronto's Argodome and is already a 52,230 sellout, with a television audience that will surpass four million.
The game is dubbed "The Grand National Drunk" because of the week-long festivities that precede and follow it - Dan Akroyd, Bare Naked Ladies and Lenny Kravitz among those performing.
This match is slugged "The Battle of the Prairie".
Saskatchewan have made 13 finals and lost all bar two, were last at the title game in 1997, and last won in 1989. Winnipeg are rated second for offensive ground-gain and second in defensive rankings after the 18 games. Saskatchewan were third on offence, fifth on defence.
The Roughriders lost 34-16 to Winnipeg in the 18-game regular season. But they are almost unbackable favourites because the Bombers' first-choice quarterback Kevin Glenn broke his arm in their 19-9 semifinal win over the Toronto Argonauts last weekend, and back-up Ryan Dinwiddie is not rated.
Mullinder played four seasons at Michigan State College before being picked in the fourth round of the CFL draft in 2004, at number 31. He played just one game that year but featured in all 18 last season and this as well as the 26-17 play-off win over 2006 champions British Columbia last weekend. He is one of a number of defensive linemen rotated throughout the game.
