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Damian McKenzie shares update on ACL recovery

All Blacks full-back Damian McKenzie

It is understandable that during the excitement of the World Cup, some players who are absent from rugby’s showpiece tournament are forgotten.

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New Zealand’s Damian McKenzie is such a player.

McKenzie, who established himself as the All Blacks‘ first-choice fullback in 2018, would have surely been a part of the All Blacks squad in Japan but for a devastating ACL injury in April which ruled him out until 2020.

McKenzie had spent much of the season juggling roles as a flyhalf and fullback with the Chiefs, and had started to show some good form in the 15 shirt. To make matters worse, the injury came only a few days after being selected for Steve Hansen’s 41-man foundation squad.

Since then, the elusive fullback has been chronicling his recovery on social media, and recently provided another update on Instagram. The 24-year-old shared videos of himself sprinting, which is yet more encouraging progress for All Blacks and Chiefs fans.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3D7VXyBHMu/?utm_source=ig_web_options_share_sheet

It has been roughly six months since McKenzie sustained the injury playing for the Chiefs in Super Rugby, which means there are still a few months ahead of him before he is once again ready action. He was expected to be out for nine months, so will likely be targeting the start of the 2020 Super Rugby season if everything goes according to plan.

McKenzie’s presence in the All Blacks squad in Japan may have only complicated matters further, as Hansen is already trying to find a way to accommodate both Richie Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett in the squad, opting to play the latter at fullback. This means that Ben Smith either plays on the wing or is shifted to the bench, so it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had the 21-cap international been fit.

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For now, however, McKenzie will be focusing on returning to the All Blacks next season, and he has yet again shown that he is edging closer to his recovery.

Missing seeing the petit dynamo at the World Cup? Have a look at the kind of plays Damian McKenzie produced against the French in 2018:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith' Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith'
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