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Chiefs coach explains decision to rest Damian McKenzie for Crusaders clash

Damian McKenzie and the Chiefs celebrate scoring the try. Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images

All Blacks playmaker Damian McKenzie will not line up for the Chiefs on Friday night when they take on a desperate Crusaders outfit in Christchurch, as confirmed by coach Clayton McMillan.

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McKenzie, who is widely considered the front-runner to wear the All Blacks’ No. 10 jersey under Scott Robertson, picked up a knock during the Chiefs’ win over the Crusaders in round one.

While the star fly-half had seemingly recovered from that rib injury to star during the Chiefs’ 4-1 start to the season, another injury and rest protocols will see McKenzie miss a round six derby.

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With rest protocols requiring All Blacks to miss at least two matches this season, coach McMillan has revealed that McKenzie will miss the Good Friday clash with the Crusaders.

The Crusaders may be anchored to the bottom of the Super Rugby Pacific ladder with five losses from as many starts, but McMillan insisted this decision had nothing to do with their form.

“We had always planned on Damian getting through the first four of five games before he needed a rest, as per the protocols,” McMillan told Stuff.

“It’s certainly got nothing to do with the Crusaders and how they are tracking at the moment, that didn’t even factor into our thinking, it just either had to be last week or this week.

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“He’s had a niggly knee… it’s nothing serious, it’s just something that’s been a bit of a niggle at the start of last week, that’s why we contemplated him resting (against the Highlanders) but he came good.

“But it’s just a timely reminder, instead of pushing it another week to a point where something that’s minor could turn into something a little bit more serious.

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins
2
Draws
0
Wins
3
Average Points scored
25
29
First try wins
40%
Home team wins
60%

“If Damian had been 100% fit, it might have been an easier decision to extend him another week, but he’s not, so we won’t risk him.”

The Chiefs will look to keep within touching distance of the high-flying Hurricanes who remain the only undefeated side in the competition with a flawless run of five victories.

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With the Chiefs just four competition points back, a bonus point win down in Christchurch and a disastrous defeat for the Hurricanes could see the Hamilton-based franchise leap up to first.

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J
JW 4 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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