KEY POINTS:
Never thought the day would come when these words ...
Might as well get it over with, and even happily, as it turns out.
It's been difficult, impossible, not to cast a glance south and find oneself consumed with admiration for the (clear the throat) Crusaders.
Yes, over the past decade or more of professional rugby, it has been necessary to tip the hat towards Christchurch, to acknowledge that they sure know what they are doing when it comes to rugby down there.
It hasn't been necessary to yell from the treetops of course. There are enough Crusaders disciples in Auckland happy to take on that task. Some hang pictures of Todd Blackadder by their desks.
Having anything good, let alone great, to say about Canterbury rugby doesn't come easy.
Those childhood years spent cheering the cherished blue and white hoops of Auckland have left an indelible mark, even if the passion isn't as it was in those days of innocent, unbridled enthusiasm. (You sure needed plenty of those attributes to support Auckland in the 1970s).
Yes. A trickle of respect for the Crusaders and their driving force - Mr Robbie Deans, of managerial and coaching fame - has found its way past the old prejudices. Only a trickle, mind you.
When push comes to shove, it has been a lot easier to bang on about their advantages, such as being based on one dominant union and referees who don't notice that Richie McCaw ignores the rear gate at rucks and simply hops over the fence from left field. Well, that's what it looks like through blue-tinted glasses.
Then up stepped the All Black reconditioning programme.
New Zealand rugby being New Zealand rugby, there was very little, if any, complaint or even debate from within the game about Graham Henry's grand scheme.
The country may have discarded the cradle-to-grave state-run social welfare mentality, but when it comes to the national sport, rugby society is happily spoon-fed its medicine in large New Zealand Rugby Union doses.
Dissent is, usually, minimal.
The best interests of coaches and players, who are employed by the central authority, are not served by spouting off. Justin Marshall (bless him) was the last bloke willing to brazenly take on the Establishment.
So maybe Deans, when told he would lose seven All Blacks for seven rounds, responded with gritted teeth.
Having been dumped as the assistant All Black coach after helping engineer a decent rescue act for the last World Cup, Deans saw his champion side stripped by a successor who had been handed the keys to the World Cup build-up kingdom.
He may have given his teeth a good grinding as well.
Why should the Crusaders deserve sympathy over this?
Because, having nurtured their franchise so brilliantly over the years, their title and planning were put at extra risk by an outside force that was also their employer. They were, in a way, tucked into bed by the enemy this season.
Coaches and players of many great sides will tell you that they never enter a new season defending a title, that they need a mentality of having to win it again. Still, a champion side hardly deserve to have their guns so severely spiked.
The stolid Deans doesn't appear as someone who suffers nightmares, but in his worst dreams he may have wondered if the carefully calculated passing of the Crusader torch from one generation to the next might be undone by this gap year.
Not to fear, because the red and blacks have responded without fuss, and superbly.
The All Black reconditioning programme has also achieved the absolutely impossible, by turning these Super 14 monsters into heroes without borders.
In a season in which they should have been ripe for the plucking, when many believed a late All Black-fuelled burst would be needed to get them into the semifinals, the Crusaders sit atop the table, four points clear, although with two tricky assignments to go.
Full home advantage is almost secured, and another title beckons.
This may appear as just another successful crusade in the making, but these are not the Crusaders of old. Their tight five is devoid of test starters. They have only an adequate scrum and a shortish lineout, because Greg Somerville and Chris Jack are sidelined.
Remarkably there are only two fit Crusaders who qualify as dead-set certainties in the run-on top-string test side and we all know who they are. In other words, Deans' squad has no right to be placed where they are.
Ben Franks, Wyatt Crockett, Kieran Read - hardly household names. But they, and others, have been well taught, and are learning well.
Compare them, say, to the equally-affected Hurricanes, who have unravelled.
The Crusaders' achievements are many. Six titles, two other finals appearances, a host of All Blacks, brilliant recruiting and coaching, the turning of good stock into quality players, the safe handling of outstanding talent, an ability to give the rugby-heads something to cling to during a few dark times, and a benchmark for others to be measured by. Ye gods, even Ron Cribb was happy there.
As with great disasters, great successes are usually the result of many factors. But if there is one key attribute that Deans holds, it is the ability to spot players of tremendous team-oriented character, or else find it within them where others fail. The education of Cribb, and his subsequent decline, is a fine example.
Comparison time: Blues coach David Nucifora may have gone against his better instincts by starting Ali Williams for Greg Rawlinson against the Stormers.
Williams, a potentially great lock but a scourge on his own talent, might check the tapes and consider the deeds of those around him before indulging in more nonsense such as the flying post-whistle assault on Schalk Burger's blond mop.
Williams' lunacy meant the struggling Blues, having just been left a man down, swapped a scrum feed for a Stormers' penalty. Henry may have reconditioned Williams' body, but his brain remains in a distressingly pristine condition.
That the hard-driving Rawlinson, the Blues' unsung hero this year, should sit on the bench while test rival Williams indulged in his self-important behaviour, was galling.
But the point here is if the Blues had been the Crusaders, Deans, Reuben Thorne and company would have put a loose cannon like Williams in his place a long time ago, or else fired him into outer space.
Under duress, character and discipline enable the Crusaders to hold to their plans, as they did against the Hurricanes. Even when short of their prime, they are poised, ready to turn committed defence into sweeping attack.
Their fitness, strength, skill and strategy are usually unmatched. They also have an innate sense for when important moments in matches and seasons have arrived, and what best to do about them. Their relentless attention to detail can produce rugby works of art.
In an age where the simple act of scoring a try inspires some young men to signal their communion with whatever power might exist upstairs, the team from Cathedral Square excel at honest human endeavour.
They mainly leave the ethereal to those elsewhere, although some of Deans' utterances do not always appear to be from this Earth.
Forgive me if this is a stereotype, but Christchurch sensibilities, an aversion to the superfluous and flashy, appear rooted in their success.
In the circumstances of the 2007 season, it is even easier to heap praise their way.
The Crusaders, and Deans, are truly magnificent. If they claim the 2007 title, it might be their greatest single achievement yet.
