Last chance saloon arrives for 'master of none' Damian McKenzie

Is he a 10, or is he a 15? That’s the conundrum that’s plagued Damian McKenzie throughout his eight-year professional career to date.

The 27-year-old was a first five-eighth throughout his formative years and made his Super Rugby debut wearing the No 10 jersey for the Chiefs back in 2015 when Aaron Cruden was ruled out from their opening fixture of the competition.

A 20-year-old McKenzie delivered a polished performance, guiding the Chiefs to a 23-18 victory over the Blues, but it was at fullback where the pocket rocket was largely employed throughout the remainder of the season, even when Cruden went down late in the campaign.

In the years since, McKenzie has largely played his rugby in the No 15 jersey and was one of the most dangerous attacking players in Super Rugby up until his ACL injury in 2019, regularly topping the charts for busted tackles, linebreaks, metres run and try assists.

There was a brief period following Cruden’s departure from the side in 2019 when then-coach Colin Cooper attempted to shift McKenzie back to the position of his youth but it was an ill-fated strategy that lasted just a handful of games.

McKenzie didn’t look poor at No 10, per se, he just didn’t have the same room to move that he was afforded at the back and his influence was diluted somewhat. After a run of five matches without a win to kick off the season, Cooper shifted McKenzie back to fullback and the impact was both instant and significant: the Chiefs recorded a 56-20 win over the Bulls in Pretoria with their diminutive No 15 leading the charge.

The following week, the Chiefs emerged victorious once again and then disaster struck against the Blues, with McKenzie’s season coming to a premature end following a bad collision with Blues pivot Otere Black.

“Yeah he’s he’s done an ACL so [it] looks like he could be out for eight to nine months, which is a real shame for him,” All Blacks coach Steven Hansen said at the time.

“His World Cup opportunity is gone [but] he’ll still be young enough to make probably the next two. It’s just important that he gets his knee right and takes his time to come back and achieve the dreams that he wants to achieve.”

At that point in time, McKenzie was well entrenched as New Zealand’s first-choice fullback, having formed a strong partnership with No 10 Beauden Barrett.

Three years on, and McKenzie now finds himself in somewhat of a race against the clock to prove Hansen’s words true and put himself in pole position to travel to France 2023.

There’s a very real chance that if he does make the plane, however, it won’t be as a fullback anymore.

McKenzie gambled on his international career somewhat when he skipped this year’s Super Rugby Pacific season, instead linking up with Tokyo Sungoliath in Japan. As such, he was unavailable for national selection throughout the All Blacks’ first nine games of their campaign.

He has now spent the provincial season playing at first five for Waikato – and it appears that’s where he hopes to commit himself for the future. He indicated as much when he headed to Japan, telling the What a Lad podcast, “Moving forward, 10’s the position I want to try and focus on.”

While Jordie Barrett ostensibly has a lock on the No 15 jersey for New Zealand – although has many convinced that the midfield is where he should be playing – there’s still much consternation over who is best suited to guide the team around the park from flyhalf.

In saying that, it’s not like Richie Mo’unga nor Beauden Barrett are bad players, and their bodies of work are considerably more sizeable than what McKenzie has put together in recent seasons. While there’s a certain appeal to having McKenzie stationed at first receiver, picking out ball-runners to send into holes with his bullet passes, there’ll be an understandable concern from the national selectors that McKenzie is still too new to the rule and too inexperienced to be handing him the reins against top-tier opposition.

At present, McKenzie hasn’t even been able to fight his way into the first-choice squad and will instead travel to Europe with the All Blacks XV as one of their two first five options alongside Super Rugby teammate Bryn Gatland.

Assuming McKenzie isn’t whistled into the All Blacks due to injuries, the 27-year-old will have just four or five Tests ahead of the 2023 World Cup to prove he should be in New Zealand’s matchday 23 for the big dance – and that’s assuming he’s actually able to force his way into the squad ahead of the likes of Stephen Perofeta.

Ahead of the 2019 tournament, many expected Damian McKenzie to have a big role in the proceedings. If it weren’t for his unfortunate ACL injury, it’s entirely possible that the All Blacks’ season could have ended on a more positive note, and the firecracker of a player could have etched his name in all sorts of history books around the world. Instead, McKenzie ceded his position in the team to Richie Mo’unga and has seen the likes of Beauden and Jordie Barrett take over as preferred fullback options.

Maybe McKenzie isn’t destined to go down as one of the best players to grace the game but he has been an excitement machine for the All Blacks and especially the Chiefs, capable of turning a match on its head. If McKenzie is to send a reminder to the powers that be that he could still serve a purpose for New Zealand at next year’s World Cup, however, he’ll need to deliver two big performances next month for the All Blacks XV when they take on Ireland A and the Barbarians.

D-Day looms for the former golden boy of New Zealand rugby.