Damian McKenzie of the Chiefs. Photo / Photosport
Phil Gifford lists five rugby talking points, including an unlikely recipient for gratitude.
Thank you, or danke in Afrikaans, is not something Kiwis would normally be saying to the Boks, but in the lead-up to the World Cup in France, the All Blacks will desperately need the tests against South Africa at Mt Smart in July, and at Twickenham in August.
Without them, New Zealand would be going into the opening game of the Cup against France as conditioned to what they’ll strike in Paris as a heavyweight challenger facing Tyson Fury who’s only sparred with wee welterweights.
There’s no quick answer to the fact that the Aussie teams in Super Rugby Pacific don’t have the bruising, brutal man-mountain forwards France and Ireland use to dominate world rugby. Cutting the competition down to Kiwi teams only would make the battles up front much tougher. But, as many players commented during Covid-enforced Super Rugby Aotearoa in 2020, local derbies every weekend took a savage toll on bodies.
The lack of playing against forward-dominated opponents won’t be lost on Jason Ryan and Ian Foster, who’ll no doubt be hammering home old-fashioned sweaty essentials once they get the All Blacks in camp. But nothing beats matchplay, and that’s why such wildly diverse grounds, Mt Smart and Twickenham, are the fields to build the All Blacks’ dream.
When Damian McKenzie headed to Japan for a season there in 2022, it was difficult not to wonder whether it might signal the twilight years of a career that at All Blacks level never quite made him a guaranteed starter. In his last two seasons of the Rugby Championship, he came off the bench in five of six tests.
But his stellar season this year in Super Rugby Pacific soared to new heights in the Chiefs’ 20-13 defeat of the Blues. He’s always been hard to catch when he runs, but McKenzie hit new levels of audacious attack, while his kicking in Hamilton - with the exception of one goal-line drop out that went out on the full - was impeccable. He kicked conversions from the sideline, and a 51-metre penalty goal in the 45th minute as if he wasn’t kicking with a wet ball from a slippery run-up. Add in the beautiful chip through for wing Emoni Narawa’s try just 26 seconds into the game, and a big tick had to go beside his name in the All Blacks list for the World Cup.
By contrast it was a Nightmare On Seddon Road for Beauden Barrett at Waikato Stadium, from a couple of weird conversion attempts that almost skimmed the grasstops, and an attempt to do what every coach wants, to run the ball nearer to the posts for the conversion, that turned horrifically wrong when he stepped on the dead ball line.
There have been echoes of the ruthless bagging Reuben Thorne copped as the 2003 World Cup captain in the mutterings about Sam Cane’s claims to All Blacks leadership. But now restored to full fitness, Cane in Hamilton was a potent, towering figure for the Chiefs, dominating breakdowns and a terminator on the tackle. And hopefully even the most malicious troll would have winced and felt sympathy when he had to leave the field after Beauden Barrett’s knee accidentally smashed into his groin.
It took a while for Highlanders prop Ethan de Groot to convince the All Blacks selectors he had the right work ethic, as well as strength and scrummaging skills, before they called him into their squad in 2021.
Since then he’s thrived, and the huge bonus for the Highlanders is that his work rate for them is just as good as it has been in the New Zealand jersey. With Jermaine Ainsley, a Central Otago boy back from five years propping for Australian Super Rugby teams and the Wallabies, the Highlanders’ front row is rock solid. Ainsley’s still only 27, but the tighthead’s a 122kg unshakeable scrum cornerstone.
Famously an East Coast rep team was once so decimated by injury their bus driver was drafted in for a game on tour. Coach Scott Robertson managed a wry laugh when he confirmed that his Crusaders were down to their last 23 players after their 25-12 victory over the Reds in Brisbane.
It’ll be a huge relief for the Crusaders that it’s four weeks before they have to play the table-topping Chiefs in Hamilton.