FROM YOUNG BEGINNINGS: Todd Blackadder led the Crusaders to their first Super Rugby title win – a final victory over the Blues at Eden Park in the then Super 12.
Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder has a chance to go where no man has gone before him in the Super Rugby annals.
The 42-year-old former All Blacks skipper could become the first person to captain and coach title-winning teams.
Blackadder guided the Crusaders to the first three of their record seven championship victories, the first coming in 1998 when they beat the Blues, 20-13 at Eden Park, breaking the Auckland-based franchise’s hold on the title.
Blackadder endeared himself to the entire top of the South Island region by making a post-game speech acknowledging the team represented Nelson Bays, Marlborough, Buller, West Coast, South Canterbury, Mid Canterbury and Canterbury.
He was also at the helm for the first and only all-South Island final, when the Crusaders beat the Highlanders at Carisbrook in 1999, in a match dubbed Party At Tony Brown’s Place.
Blackadder’s last title as captain came in 2000 after a frozen final in Canberra when a Ron Cribb kick-and-gather try and five Andrew Mehrtens penalties earned them a one-point win over the Brumbies – and clinched Blackadder’s recall as All Blacks captain.
But the Silver Fox left New Zealand’s shores at the end of the 2001 season after captaining Canterbury to NPC glory. He had a playing and coaching stint with Edinburgh in Scotland before returning home to take up a director of rugby post at the Tasman Rugby Union.
It was a full-circle return for the former backrower turned lock who made his first-class debut as an 18-year-old playing for Golden Bay club Collingwood.
Blackadder was appointed to the Crusaders head coaching job in 2009 after his former Glenmark clubmate Robbie Deans departed to coach the Wallabies.
The Crusaders have made the playoffs every season on Blackadder’s watch and were beaten finalists in 2011, the year they were forced to play every ”home” game away from Christchurch after the catastrophic Canterbury earthquakes.
Tomorrow night is Blackadder’s chance to set the ledger straight and join former mentors Deans and Wayne Smith as champion Crusaders coaches.