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Scott Hansen: 'We all know Damian, don't we? He's a gambler'

Damian McKenzie celebrates the All Blacks win. Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images

More shot clock drama stopped just shy of unfolding in the All Blacks‘ tight win over England over the weekend, with Damian McKenzie again at the centre of it.

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Just as the All Blacks’ first five-eight debate looked to be settling down with Beauden Barrett earning his second consecutive start in the coveted No. 10 jersey at Allianz Stadium, the eldest Barrett brother succumbed to a head knock late and was replaced as playmaker by the man who started the opening nine Tests of the year at 10, Damian McKenzie.

With a 75th-minute Mark Tele’a try levelling the score at 22 apiece, McKenzie was tasked with stepping up for what would become the match-winning conversion from the sideline.

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After timing out on an attempt off the tee in the first game of New Zealand’s Test season against England in July, the clock winding down on McKenzie was a serious cause for Kiwi concern. However, with the shot clock on three, the 29-year-old struck it beautifully and the ball sailed just inside the righthand upright.

“We all know Damian, don’t we? He’s a gambler. He’s brave, he’s going to kick that. He’s in the moment. In that moment, he’s kicking to win it, but he’s got no pressure around where he’s at with it,” All Blacks assistant coach Scott Hansen said of the moment when reflecting on the game with Newstalk ZB’s Weekend Sport with Jason Pine.

“He lined it up, he was confident. It was never going to be around that kick, it was always going to be around the moments before it.

“But at the end of the day, for him to line it up, be so confident, and that’s the Damian McKenzie we all know: brave. And from that, we were in a position to win a Test.”

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The conversion was far from the last moment of drama in the Test, as England won possession back on the restart and pressed downfield to set McKenzie’s counterpart George Ford up with a drop goal to win the game at the death.

30 seconds after the 80-minute siren had sounded, Ford kicked and missed.

Joy was written on the New Zealand faces, but so too was the fatigue of a titanic Test match. The team now face a short turnaround as they play the world’s No. 1 ranked team, Ireland, on Friday night in Dublin.

“Tonight we’ve got to regroup,” Hansen said. “There are a number of boys who are very sore, it was a very tough Test match here.

“Twickenham, England, home; those first couple of carries that came around the corner were very, very physical. We’ve had a number of players leave the field through HIA protocols, so we’re looking at that also.

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“You go into Ireland with a shorter week, yes. But, you go into tomorrow proud of the performance today and as All Blacks we’ll ask ourselves where can we be better and we’ll get excited about the opportunity to face Ireland on their home turf also.”

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins
2
Draws
0
Wins
3
Average Points scored
22
25
First try wins
60%
Home team wins
20%

Codie Taylor joins Barrett on the injury list for the Ireland Test, but the good news is the return to form of 2023 World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year Mark Tele’a who scored twice in the England win.

“It was a very good performance from him, wasn’t it? Two tries today, strong on the edge. You think about the air, we needed to go to contestable kicks, Mark was winning them in the right spots. It’s a performance he can be really proud of and we’re really happy for him.”

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Comments

2 Comments
B
Bobby 16 days ago

England played off side most of the game.

H
Head high tackle 16 days ago

And all the ref did was keep telling them they are in the wrong but then thanking them. I dont understand why refs constantly tell one side to stop doing an illegal thing but never penalise them, yet penalise the other side without saying any warnings.

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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