Todd Julian Blackadder

Surname:

Blackadder

First names:

Todd Julian

All Black Player No:

947

All Black games played:

All Black years:

1995 - 2000

Clubs:

Collingwood
Belfast, Glenmark

Provincial teams:

Nelson Bays 1990
Canterbury 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
Canterbury SU 1994
NZ Colts 1991, 1992
NZ Divisional XV 1991
NZ XV 1993
NZ Development Team 1994
NZ A 1999

Super teams:

Crusaders 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001

Provincial captain:

Canterbury 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
Canterbury XV 1995
NZ Barbarians XV 1996

Super captain:

Crusaders 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001

Country captain:

NZ A 1997, 1999
All Blacks 2000

Biography:

1990: Flanker [4], No 8 [5] - 9 games
1990: Nelson Bays/Marlborough: No 8 - 1 game
1991: Flanker - 1 game
1991: NZ Colts: Flanker [3], No 8 [1] - 4 games
1991: NZ Divisional XV: No 8 - 2 games - 1 try (4 pts)
1992: Flanker [15], No 8 [2] - 17 games - 7 tries (4 @ 4) (31 pts)
1992: NZ Colts: Flanker [2], Sub [1] - 3 games - 1 try (5 pts)
1993: Flanker [8], No 8 [1] - 9 games - 1 try (5 pts)
1993: Possibles: 2nd game: Flanker - 1 game
1993: NZ XV: Flanker - 1 game - 1 try (5 pts)
1994: Flanker [7], No 8 [12] - 19 games - 6 tries (30 pts)
1994: Possibles: Flanker - 1 game
1994: NZ Development Team: Lock [2], Flanker [1], No 8 [1] - 4 games
1995: AB's: Flanker - 2 tour games, No 8 - 2 tour games - 2 tries (10 pts)
1995: No 8 - 16 games - 7 tries (35 pts)
1995: Canterbury XV: No 8 - 1 game - 1 try (5 pts)
1996: AB's: Flanker - 4 tour games
1996: Cr: Flanker [5], No 8 [5] - 10 games - 1 try (5 pts)
1996: Lock [8], Flanker [3], No 8 [4] - 15 games - 6 tries (30 pts)
1996: NZ Barbarians XV: Flanker - 1 game
1996: Hawkes Bay Invitation XV: Flanker - 1 game:
1997: AB's: Flanker - 4 tour games (all as captain)
1997: Cr: Flanker [10], No 8 [1] - 11 games - 1 try (5 pts)
1997: Flanker - 11 games - 1 try (5 pts)
1997: NZ A: Flanker - 1 game
1998: AB's: Flanker - 2 tests
1998: Cr: Flanker - 13 games - 1 try (5 pts)
1998: Flanker [1], No 8 [9] - 10 games - 4 tries (20 pts)
1998: NZ Barbarians: Flanker - 1 game
1999: AB's: Lock - 1 tour game
1999: Cr: Lock - 13 games
1999: Lock [6], Flanker [3] - 9 games - 3 tries (15 pts)
1999: NZ A: Lock - 4 games
2000: AB's: Lock - 10 tests (all as captain) - 1 try (5 pts)
2000: Cr: Lock - 13 games - 3 tries (15 pts)
2000: Lock - 7 games - 1 try (5 pts)
2001: Cr: Lock [10], Flanker [1] - 11 games
2001: Lock [14], Sub [1] - 15 games
2002: UK Barbarians: 1 game

Total: AB's: 12 tests, 13 tour games (15 pts):
Super: 71 games (30 pts):
Prov: Ca: 129 games (176 pts): NB: 9 games:
Others: 27 games (19 pts)

Total: 261 games (240 pts)

1997: 1st Division Player of the year
2001: Player of the Year

Born: 20 Sep 1971

Endorsement

When the battle scars have faded
And the truth becomes a lie
And the weekend smell of liniment
Could almost make you cry.
When the last rucks well behind you
And the man that ran now walks
It doesn’t matter who you are
The mirror sometimes talks
Have a good hard look old son!
The melons not that great
The snoz that takes a sharp turn sideways
Used to be dead straight
You’re an advert for arthritis
You’re a thoroughbred gone lame
Then you ask yourself the question
Why the hell you played the game?
Was there logic in the head knocks?
In the corks and in the cuts?
Did common sense get pushed aside?
By manliness and guts?
Do you sometimes sit and wonder
Why your time would often pass
In a tangled mess of bodies
With your head up someone’s......?
With a thumb hooked up your nostril
Scratching gently on your brain
And an overgrown Neanderthal
Rejoicing in your pain!
Mate – you must recall the jersey
That was shredded into rags
Then the soothing sting of Dettol
On a back engraved with tags!
It’s almost worth admitting
Though with some degree of shame
That your wife was right in asking
Why the hell you played the game?
Why you’d always rock home legless
Like a cow on roller skates
After drinking at the clubhouse
With your low down drunken mates
Then you’d wake up – check your wallet
Not a solitary coin
Drink Berocca by the bucket
Throw an ice pack on your groin
Copping Sunday morning sermons
About boozers being losers
While you limped like Quasimodo
With a half a thousand bruises!
Yes – an urge to hug the porcelain
And curse Sambuca’s name
Would always pose the question
Why the hell you played the game!
And yet with every wound re-opened
As you grimly reminisce it
Comes the most compelling feeling yet
God, you bloody miss it!
From the first time that you laced a boot
And tightened every stud
That virus known as rugby
Has been living in your blood
When you dreamt it when you played it
All the rest took second fiddle
Now you’re standing on the sideline
But your hearts still in the middle
And no matter where you travel
You can take it as expected
There will always be a breed of people
Hopelessly infected
If there’s a teammate, then you’ll find him
Like a gravitating force
With a common understanding
And a beer or three, of course
And as you stand there telling lies
Like it was yesterday old friend
You’ll know that if you had the chance
You’d do it all again
You see – that’s the thing with rugby
It will always be the same
And that, I guarantee
Is why the hell you played the game!

By Rupert McCall

Credit: Sutton & Epsom Bs

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