The All Blacks work out together in Mendoza. Video / NZ Rugby
OPINION:
A year ago, Damian McKenzie must have wondered if he’d made a lucrative mistake by taking himself off to play a season in Japan.
His decision to play for Suntory Sungoliath in 2022 netted him a reported $1.5 million, but it also saw him drop out of the nationalframe and seemingly with a long road ahead of him to rediscover his best form.
It was a struggle for McKenzie this time last year to readjust to rugby in New Zealand.
Whether it was the difference in intensity, the variation in defensive patterns or simply the fact that he was probably a little burnt out having played for 18 months without a decent break. McKenzie was not his high-energy self when he returned from Japan mid-way through the year.
No one was diagnosing his condition as terminal, but for all that he was young and ambitious, there was never any guarantee, only an assumption, that he would bounce back in time.
And now he most definitely has, winning his third start at No 10 for the All Blacks and one that he has earned after delivering a Super Rugby campaign that had strong hints of maturity and reinvention about it.
Much of the scattiness that had previously afflicted his game management was gone.
There was fire in his feet but ice in his brain and throughout the season McKenzie showed that he had learned the importance of percentage plays.
Damian McKenzie in action for the Chiefs. Photo / Photosport
Gone was the old habit of trying to make every post a winner. Gone was the need to take everything on himself when the team was under pressure, and gone was the propensity to try the impossible when the highly achievable was screaming out as the better option.
His work was mostly tidy and in not trying to do too much, he turned himself into the sort of first-five the All Blacks have long felt he could be.
He buzzed about, enticing defensive lines to rush him and lose their shape, while also producing a steady kicking strategy that while not always as accurate or as considered as it needed to be, did at least ensure the Chiefs mostly played in the right parts of the field.
And maybe most important of all is that for the first time in his professional life, McKenzie nailed himself to the first-five mast.
What seemed to be unequivocal to him and indeed the Chiefs coaching staff, is that he wanted to play No 10.
The clarity and commitment were important. The best 10s know they want to be the game controller, the key-decision maker and the backline boss.
It’s a position where attitude is everything. Being a No 10 is a state of mind as it comes with unique pressures that have to be embraced and if someone has it in their head that they are a part-timer or really a fullback, it doesn’t tend to work out.
McKenzie has developed that state of mind this year and clearly All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has seen that.
He’s also been convinced of two other things: that McKenzie is an entirely different player to the one he was in 2021 when he last played No 10 for the All Blacks and that it would be best to hurl the Chiefs playmaker straight into action.
Damian McKenzie during an All Blacks training session. Photo / Getty
It’s a smart call by the head coach. McKenzie is running hot, but he hasn’t been with the All Blacks for more than a year.
McKenzie’s re-introduction to test rugby could have been via the bench in a softly-softly catchy monkey approach, but Foster knows the mentality of his man, and feels he’s better suited to getting straight on with it.
There’s an element here, too, of needing to see whether McKenzie’s hard drive holds up under the increased pressures that come with test rugby.
It’s one thing being calm and composed in Super Rugby, but Foster needs to see McKenzie replicate that same maturity in an environment where there is less time to think and higher consequences for not doing so.
Starting with McKenzie also kills a second bird as it opens the way for Richie Mo’unga, who had a heavy workload with the Crusaders, to come off the bench to familiarise himself with test match rugby ahead of most likely starting at first-five the following week against South Africa.
It can’t be concluded just yet that McKenzie’s promotion signals that he and Mo’unga are battling it out to wear No 10 and that Beauden Barrett is now firmly seen as a fullback.
But it does seem likely that’s the view of the selectors now and that while they have infinite trust in Barrett as a No 10, they prefer him in their set-up to operate from the backfield where he can guide a group of inexperienced wings and chip in with some sage play-making when the opportunity presents.
All Blacks team to play Argentina: Beauden Barrett, Emoni Narawa, Rieko Ioane, Jordie Barrett, Caleb Clarke, Damian McKenzie, Aaron Smith, Ardie Savea, Sam Cane (c), Shannon Frizell, Josh Lord, Scott Barrett, Tyrel Lomax, Dane Coles, Ethan de Groot.
For live commentary of Argentina v All Blacks join Elliott Smith on Gold Sport and iHeartRADIO; or catch the Alternative Commentary Collective on iHeartRADIO, Hauraki and SKY Sport Pop-Up 1.
