A hard view has formed that All Blacks coach Scott Robertson has rejected the opportunity to use theend-of-year tour to start future-proofing his team.
It’s a view formed on the hard evidence of the personnel he’s picked and not picked, but that doesn’t mean there is no regeneration job to be done on the five-game tour of Japan and Europe.
There is one major project for Robertson to tackle, and that is the rebuilding of Damian McKenzie, who needs to be delicately and expertly handled in the next five weeks to ensure he understands and embraces whatever role he’s asked to play.
It has been a wild and undoubtedly confidence-sapping last few months for McKenzie.
He’s gone from being the man in whom Robertson had unshakeable confidence and seemingly never-ending patience, to now having little certainty about what the future may hold for him.
In July, and through most of the Rugby Championship, there was a definitive sense of him being the No 10 Robertson was going to back for the duration of this World Cup cycle.
The messaging was always positive, tinged with a strong hint of the All Blacks investing in McKenzie for the long term.
McKenzie’s performances against England, Argentina and South Africa contained elements of his natural brilliance and instincts to conjure something out of nothing, alongside moments that exposed his inexperience as a tactical director.
Damian McKenzie is not yet an international level first-five, says former All Black Carlos Spencer. Photo / Photosport
It was always hard to know how to assess his overall performances, but Robertson managed to always put a positive spin on things, saying of McKenzie after the All Blacks had lost 38-31 to Argentina in Wellington: “You’ve got to back him, and he’s learning along the way.
“Damian’s showed some incredible class touches, like that chip kick. His short passing game’s good and he will grow as a game manager, that’s the biggest area.”
But by the time the All Blacks left Sydney three tests later, having scraped home 31-28 after what was yet another second-half strategic malfunction, it felt like McKenzie was not developing in line with expectations and that Robertson was starting to have his doubts.
“Damian was mercurial,” the head coach said. “He can play, he can turn it on. We know how gifted an athlete and player he can be. He’s getting better at his craft. We’ve got to finish a couple of opportunities and we’re aware of that.”
Robertson, it has to be said, couldn’t quite mask his frustration that his play-making protege had again disappeared in the final 40 minutes.
The optics didn’t look great when a few days later Beauden Barrett was picked to start at first-five in the return Bledisloe.
It was a planned change, clearly communicated to McKenzie in advance, but still, it added fuel to the fire that the coaching group were back in the market for a No 10.
Beauden Barrett, left and Damian McKenzie look on during an All Blacks training session in Wellington. Photo / Getty Images
And when Barrett then delivered an accurate and consistent performance that enabled the All Blacks to squeeze the Wallabies at the right times and in the right places, and McKenzie came off the bench to buzz about with purpose and impact, the argument to make that a permanent arrangement strengthened.
It wouldn’t quite reach the threshold to be classified as a fall from grace for McKenzie, but he has endured enough career turbulence in the last eight weeks to be a little rattled and in need of careful management to ensure he doesn’t get down on himself and the All Blacks.
Not only has he felt a little erosion under his feet in terms of his selection future, he’s also been the subject – one through no fault of his own and one absolutely his fault – of a couple of headline news stories.
The Herald revealed in July that he missed the bus taking the team from San Diego to Los Angeles to catch their flight home after the test against Fiji, and shortly after that, an erroneous report was published that he would be joining La Rochelle in France next year.
Both events would have been unsettling – putting him under yet more pressure to deliver the sort of performances that buy enough goodwill with his peers, media and coaches alike to diffuse these sorts of negatives.
Damian McKenzie tackled against Australia. Photo / Getty Images
Robertson’s unprompted reference to Richie Mo’unga ahead of the Sydney test would have been another wobbly moment for McKenzie, and a player with his rare talent and who has an enormous amount to offer the All Blacks needs to be helped now to take stock of what his roadmap to 2027 may now look like.
He may have an entirely different role to play in Europe than the one he perhaps anticipated he would have just a month ago.
From imagining he would likely be starting the major tests against England, Ireland and England, he may now be recast as part of what Robertson would love to believe is going to become the All Blacks version of the bomb squad.
There’s a lot to like, based on the evidence produced in Wellington, about Barrett starting at 10 and then shifting to fullback to make way for McKenzie to finish what he started.
One systematically breaks the opposition down with his calculated game management, the other arrives to land the killer blow with his fast feet and agility.
McKenzie hasn’t yet shown he has learned his craft well enough to pull teams apart with his full portfolio, but his ability to shred a team that’s on the ropes and battling fatigue is unquestionable.
But it’s going to take a persuasive PR job to ensure McKenzie doesn’t view any change in his role, should it come, as being the demotion that it kind of is.
It will be a test of Robertson’s diplomacy and management to get McKenzie to buy into being an impact player – a job he has done for years and hoped was behind him this year.
The All Blacks need McKenzie’s energy, his point of difference and his willingness to take chances later in the game.
These are precisely the qualities a bench needs if it is to change the momentum of the game and in the hostile environments of London, Dublin and Paris, the All Blacks won’t win if they inject more of the same to navigate the final quarter.
