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'He's our guy': Clayton McMillan confirms reasons behind McKenzie switch to fullback

37 days ago

Damian McKenzie of the Chiefs is tackled during the round one Super Rugby Pacific match between the Blues and the Chiefs at Eden Park, on February 15, 2025, in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Chiefs head coach has confirmed the reasons behind moving Damian McKenzie to fullback for last night’s win over the Blues in Auckland.

McKenzie started every game of the season for the Chiefs last year in the No. 10 jersey, before being used by Scott Robertson as the All Blacks first five.

The Chiefs loaded bench featured six capped All Blacks, which may have also included McKenzie had enough players been fit.

“If we had a couple more backs available, then it may well have been that Damian started on the bench,” McMillan said.

“But that wasn’t the case so he started at the back. He’s our guy, you know he’s our 10.

“The other guys are talented and chasing him, but tonight Josh got an opportunity and I thought he did extremely well.”

Without fullback Shaun Stevenson, who is on a short-term sabbatical, McKenzie was a stop-gap solution.

The decision to load the bench was partly to reward those who had done the full pre-season with starting roles, and partly to “look after the players”.

However, McKenzie proved to be a difference maker once back at first five after Jacomb was subsitituted in the 50th minute, coming up with two massive plays.

The 29-year-old livewire bagged a try scooting around the outside of All Black centre Rieko Ioane with the Blues’ defence stretched in the 53rd minute

In the dying stages of the game in the 75th minute McKenzie bagged his second of the night to give the Chiefs an unassailable lead.

Comments

13 Comments

JW 36 days ago

He’s our guy, you know he’s our 10

You credit the room too much intelligence Clayton! No, no they don’t.

d 36 days ago

DMac comes out and basically proves what we already knew, he’s a natural #15, but nah, he’s their #10.

SC 36 days ago

Start Jacombs at 10 and McKenzie at 15 for the first 50-60 minutes each match, and let McKenzie close out the matches at 10, just as the Chiefs did against the Blues, as long as the Chiefs are consistently winning

This gives Jacombs a chance to reach his full potential and maybe become the next great All Black 10. I’m not sold he is that he is the next great 10 but if you don’t give him a shot, you will never know. Meanwhile, McKenzie is not going to get any better or worse playing at fly half 20-30 minutes per match.

JW 36 days ago

Dmac’s not had enough game time at 10 himself to do that.

If you watch the game you can see a couple of times he’s lost with what to do. I’m afraid for Josh the ABs immediate term picture is more important.

JD Kiwi 37 days ago

Josh needs a start at first five every now and then if he's to develop.

JW 36 days ago

Yep, he and Trask have the jersey next year with Dmac playing in the Top 14 right.

Plenty enough opportunity till Shaun gets back.

Smart decision by Clayton to use the guys with a full preperation too, visibly superior to those that started late (they had worked on a gameplan).

IS 37 days ago

Josh is a great player under dmac I also.agree with you hense why the chiefs squad is so strong

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Poorfour 47 minutes ago

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So “it wasn’t foul play because it wasn’t foul play” is - to you - not only an acceptable answer but the only possible answer?

I would hope that the definition of foul play is clear enough that they can say “that wasn’t foul play - even though it resulted in a serious injury - because although player A did not wrap with the right arm, he entered the ruck through the gate and from a legal angle at a legal height, and was supporting his own weight until player B entered the ruck behind him and pushed him onto player C’s leg” or “that wasn’t foul play although players D and E picked player F out of a ruck, tipped him upside down and dropped him on his shoulder because reasons.”

Referees sometimes offer a clear explanation, especially when in discussion with the TMO, but they don’t always, especially for incidents that aren’t reviewed on field. It’s also a recognised flaw in the bunker system that there isn’t an explanation of the card decisions - I’d personally prefer the bunker to prepare a short package of the best angles and play back to the ref their reasoning, with the ref having the final say, like an enhanced TMO. It would cost a few more seconds, but would help the crowd to understand.

Greater clarity carries with it risks - not least that if the subsequent feedback is at odds with the ref’s decision they run the risk of harassment on social media - but rugby is really struggling to show that it can manage these decisions consistently, and offering a clear explanation after the fact would help to ensure better consistency in officiating in future.

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SH 1 hour ago

How to solve a problem like Welsh rugby

I don’t even think the U20s are much of a crumb of comfort to be honest - they only really did what Welsh teams have done to plenty of highly fancied English teams before them and ambushed them in Cardiff with lots of PASHUN LADS etc. If you’d ask me which of the two teams will make a dent at the forthcoming JWC, it won’t be Wales. It also doesn’t seem to matter how talented Wales are at age grade, the players stagnate once they reach the regions, hence why Gatland was often keen on fast tracking youth.

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YeowNotEven 2 hours ago

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Man I would love Cullen Grace to kick on. When he first got picked I thought he was going to own a shirt and do what Wallace did.

Takes some players a bit longer to develop.

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GP 2 hours ago

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Agree with you. Certain people you think they will be here forever . Also about the age comment. Correct. Like you would do you often think back to past events and realize that so much time has gone by. It will be 40 years in September since the Canterbury-Auckland “Match of the Century”.Incredible.Two of the main stays of that Canterbury team , Jock Hobbs , (2012) and his Brother in Law Bruce Deans , ( 2019), have passed away. Bruce Deans played every minute of the 27 games , including the winning match Wellington , (1982) and the losing Auckland , (1985) games. John Drake and Andy Haden who were both in the Auckland team have passed and Peter Fatialofa , who I think was on the bench.

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YeowNotEven 2 hours ago

'There's a lot of rugby knowledge': David Havili's reasoning behind in-form backline

By the end of last season neither Telea or Reece were at their best.

At that point, when players look a yard behind the pace I reckon razor should give someone young and hungry and keen a crack at it.

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Head high tackle 2 hours ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

I think the draw needs to be sorted out. Its horribably unfair. Either make it 10 rounds or 20 rounds.

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Head high tackle 2 hours ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

Tupaea and Tavitavinawi against any other 12s. If she believes Canham is outperforming Barrett thats cool but what were the stats from the game they played each other? it was a 30 point thrashing from memory

16 Go to comments

Head high tackle 2 hours ago

Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

But surely a players stats are better when they play weak opposition? Were Canhams stats better than Barrets when they played against each other caz from memory the Crusaders thrashed the Reds.

What is desperately needed is a fair and equal draw. The skewed draw skews all stats.

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Head high tackle 3 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

A draft is unenforsible. Its a restraint of practice. NRL draft lasted a couple of years before a player from Manly didnt want to shift to where he was drafted to and that was across town. Forcing a player into a draft then making him shift to another country miles from his family wouldnt last the first draft. Imagine a young fella from a small town out of Dunedin being forced to move to Perth where he has no family whatsoever. I could see a court decision being asked for very quickly.

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JH 3 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

MP are a NZ side through and through, NZ is even having to pay for it. It was only really set up to stop the constant whinging (when nothing was stopping a pi player playing for any side in Super Rugby) and as a front to whisper in the ears of NZ and Aussie born players of Pi heritage that they’ll never make the ABs or Wallabies, switch to Tonga and Samoa instead. It’s becoming the jump-ship/zero loyalty joke that international League is.

For some reason it’s ‘poaching’ when any other nations do it, but not when the ‘poor islands’ do it, and statistically, they’re right up there with Scotland and Japan in terms of poached players. Not one of these Kiwis and Aussies would go live in the Islands to satisfy any criteria, and I’d say most of them have hardly ever set foot in the islands, outside of a holiday.

They should make the rule that you either have to be born in a nation, or that you’ve spent two-thirds of your life there. That rule would be good for NZ. But then watch the usual sector complain how that unfairly penalizes their national side because they’d lose all their imports. Can’t win.

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JH 3 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

So rules created to fill the Samoan and Tongan sides with Aussie and Kiwi born and developed players is what Taylah Johnson is saying. Well, those two ‘island’ sides are increasingly less so by the year, so mission accomplished there, and it ultimately doesn’t make them any more competitive.

Kyren Taumoefolau is a NZer. He’s come through all the NZR systems and he wants to play for the All Blacks, so what? The only people making an issue of this are the ones who are always keen to play the victim card. It’s okay for them to poach with rules that are openly designed for them to do so, but heaven forbid a Kiwi or Aussie wants to play for the nation of their birth. Good grief.

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Rugby 101 - Ed Pye 3 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

Johnson’s point is that Aussie teams filled with Australians makes the wallabies strong, but the Aussies teams have had bit-time NZ players for ever and the Wallabies have been both good and bad, so the point has limited support. Mils didn't explain it very well but a drafted comp would even out the competition which would allow Australian teams to win more which I believe would do more for the wallabies than having Aussie players in Aussie teams.

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lK 3 hours ago

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CO 4 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

Australian rugby has always been weak apart from the Eales era.

It's getting absolutely weakened having to share talent with the two other oval ball games of League and AFL. It gets kiwis over to fill out sides to plug holes.

The limitations with an equitable draft is NZ players aren't eligible to play for the Allblacks from offshore. However on both sides of the Tasman a draft system could be useful.

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DC 4 hours ago

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To Nic Dolly and ex England “star” is pushing it a bit. Ex England player would be more accurate.

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CO 4 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

He's a Kiwi, born and raised in NZ. I think he should need to go and permanently reside in Tonga and play their domestic comps with a five year stand down.

I don't see any benefit to NZ rugby with all these players representing the islands and other countries but actually living here and taking up spots in our professional NPC and super sides.

The Moana side seems to be being paid for by the NZ taxpayer, money that could be going into NZ rugby.

Rugby's hugely expensive to fund and NZ rugby needs to get back to number one to win back sponsors, it won't do so giving everyone else a lot of it's best players.

Fiji is a viable rugby nation with it's sides talent overwhelmingly coming from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa should have to do the same.

I fully understand this idea that NZ should support the islands but I'm not seeing the benefits for NZ just more player drain.

The real problem though is the top NZ talent being poached by England, Wales, France, Japan, Scotland, Ireland. That's genuinely disgraceful.

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olivia matt7777 4 hours ago

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JW 4 hours ago

Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

Of course he can represent New Zealand. He can play for any other team other than the All Blacks - like Fabian Holland did last year with the New Zealand XV - this year, and represent the ABs next year. That’s an entirely normal and expected position for any new talent to be in, regardless of having played for another country before.