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'Our greatest impact player': Evaluating Damian McKenzie's World Cup role

Damian McKenzie with ball in hand for the All Blacks. Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images

The All Blacks No 10 jersey has been wrestled back and forth throughout this World Cup cycle, but just as it looked settled that Richie Mounga was the man to lead the charge at the World Cup, Damian McKenzie stepped in.

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Returning from a one-year contract with Japan’s Tokyo Sungoliath, McKenzie instantly elevated his Chiefs team to the top side in Super Rugby Pacific, beating Mo’unga’s Crusaders in the opening match of the season and going on to sustain just one blemish in the entire regular season.

McKenzie’s game had evolved, his erratic play was diluted by a more structural-minded attacking skillset and coach Clayton McMillan handed his flyhalf the keys to running a slick, dangerous attack.

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It was Mo’unga’s Crusaders who again had the last laugh but McKenzie had earned himself a return to higher honours and a shot at the throne.

And so in the first test of the All Blacks’ season, McKenzie was handed the keys to the All Blacks attack and after a shaky start, his quality came through.

Ian Foster handed those keys back to Richie Mo’unga a week later in Auckland and as expected, the No 10 jersey remains in the Super Rugby champion’s hands.

But it was never a starting role that McKenzie was slated for, his energetic and unpredictable play promised fans a wild game-closer and that’s where his absence has been most disappointing.

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“I think we missed him at the last World Cup,” Sir John Kirwin told The Breakdown. “I still think he’s the greatest impact player we’ve got. He’s transformed himself from a fullback to a first-five at international level. That is a talented young man.

“But he brings something different, at standoff he plays like a Rugby League standoff, runs across the field. That is gold in a World Cup.”

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Throwing a player out there who can change the attacking threat of your team like McKenzie sounds like a wonderfully chaotic way to punish teams late in the match and put close games to the sword. But, it’s not the direction selectors have taken to date.

With Beaduen Barrett claiming the fullback role, the All Blacks bench is considered better served by midfield and outside-back options, with plenty of versatility in the preferred backline making those bench selections the best bet.

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With that said, despite Beauden Barrett’s ability to play first five, Kirwin’s co-panellist Jeff Wilson believes McKenzie should be the next man up in the 10 jersey.

“It enables us to focus on Beaduen Barrett as a fullback, and it enables Beauden Barrett to focus on playing that position knowing that’s going to be that’s where he can have his biggest impact for this side.

“Now I would be surprised if at any stage anything happens to Richie Mo’unga and – I hope it doesn’t – if they move Beauden Barrett forward. I think they’ve settled on how they want to play the game and Beauden’s owning that backfield with the option of Will Jordan moving back there as well.”

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6 Comments
J
John 500 days ago

Kirwan yet again demonstrating why he was a failure as a coach. Sure he was a great player but obviously one of those who’s skills end with that. DMac is poor when pressured and throws stupid passes when pressured. He’s better at 15 because he has a better chance at seeing the space there. In Super rugby he’s a passable 10 but at the next level he’s a bit of a liability

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Tom 1 hour ago
What is the future of rugby in 2025?

Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol!


It's incredible to see the boys playing like this. Back to the form that saw them finish on top of the regular season and beat Toulon to win the challenge cup. Ibitoye and Ravouvou doing a cracking Piutau/Radradra impression.


It's abundantly clear that Borthwick and Wigglesworth need to transform the England attack and incorporate some of the Bears way. Unfortunately until the Bears are competing in Europe, the old criticisms will still be used.. we failed to fire any punches against La Rochelle and Leinster which goes to show there is still work to do but both those sides are packed full of elite players so it's not the fairest comparison to expect Bristol to compete with them. I feel Bristol are on the way up though and the best is yet to come. Tom Jordan next year is going to be obscene.


Test rugby is obviously a different beast and does Borthwick have enough time with the players to develop the level of skill the Bears plays have? Even if he wanted to? We should definitely be able to see some progress, Scotland have certainly managed it. England aren't going to start throwing the ball around like that but England's attack looks prehistoric by comparison, I hope they take some inspiration from the clarity and freedom of expression shown by the Bears (and Scotland - who keep beating us, by the way!). Bristol have the best attack in the premiership, it'd be mad for England to ignore it because it doesn't fit with the Borthwick and Wigglesworth idea of how test rugby should be played. You gotta use what is available to you. Sadly I think England will try reluctantly to incorporate some of these ideas and end up even more confused and lacking identity than ever. At the moment England have two teams, they have 14 players and Marcus Smith. Marcus sticks out as a sore thumb in a team coached to play in a manner ideologically opposed to the way he plays rugby, does the Bears factor confuse matters further? I just have no confidence in Borthers and Wiggles.


Crazy to see the Prem with more ball in play than SR!

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J
JW 5 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.


First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.


They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.


Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.


Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.


That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup

207 Go to comments
J
JW 11 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).

Number Of Clubs:

1526

Registered+Unregistered Players:

651146

Number of Referees:

3460

Pre-teen Male Players:

320842

Pre-teen Female Player:

4522

Teen Male Player:

199213

Teen Female Player:

4906

Senior Male Player:

113174

Senior Female Player:

8489

Total Male Player:

633229

Total Female Player:

17917


So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.

The total number of clubs remains consistent, with a marginal increase of 1% from 1,161 to 1,167. 8.1.

A comparative analysis of verified data for 2022 and 2023 highlights a marginal decline of 1% in the number of female players, declining from 6,801 to 6,723. Additionally, the total number of players demonstrates an 8% decrease, dropping from 96,172 to 88,828.

So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).


https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.


The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.


In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.

207 Go to comments
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LONG READ What is the future of rugby in 2025? What is the future of rugby in 2025?
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