Dylan Cleaver: Sports fans found in all corners on both sides of divide

Dan Carter offers advice at Toyota Park where players including Sonny Bill Williams and Julian Savea trained. Photo / Getty Images

The All Blacks took their travelling show to Toyota Stadium yesterday, home of football team the Chicago Fire.

To get there from downtown, the buses rolled through Chicago's South Side, famous for Barack Obama, the White Sox and gun crime. (Chicagoans are understandably sensitive about their crime statistics, and a recent report that suggested it was the murder capital of the United States has been, well, shot down. Still, 18 murders annually per 100,000 people is four times the national average.)

Sonny Bill Williams and Julian Savea of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

What is interesting is the stark difference between Chicago's north and south sides. A taxi ride an hour north to the Chicago Bears' impressive facility took in some of the city's leafier suburbs, the sort of places where you'd expect 1980s TV show Family Ties to be set.

Travelling south and the picture is not just different, but torn up. It is dangerous trying to judge a city from the window of a vehicle - like forming an opinion of the Mona Lisa after being shown only the hands - but Bridgeview, where the All Blacks trained, is a mecca for fast-food restaurants, auto workshops and railway yards: an unlovely corner of a stunning city.

All Black captain Richie McCaw was shooting goals between the second and third periods of yesterday's Chicago Blackhawks-Anaheim Ducks NHL ice hockey match. Photo / Getty Images

My cabbie was happy to accentuate the North-South divide. He was South Side, and spoke with an accent that was mid-western drawl with a large helping of defiance. South Siders were proud people, he said. Blue-collar workers. They support the White Sox and Bears and will eat anything as long as it's meat. North Siders are university educated, support the Cubs and sweep their driveways. Okay, that last bit may be licence.

Julian Savea of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

He knew the All Blacks were in town and knows they're good. He didn't know a heck of a lot about rugby but feels, given a chance, it might be something South Siders would take to. He may be right.

Watch a new video of the All Blacks in Chicago here: tinyurl.com/abswalk