Former Manu Samoa No 10 and freelance rugby scribe Campbell Burnes sees a big Super Rugby season ahead for Damian McKenzie.
Campbell Burnes – Rugby Writer
There will be a clutch of talented rookies to keep a close eye on when Super Rugby Pacific kicks off this year.
They are, among others, Cam Millar at the Highlanders, Noah Hotham at the Crusaders, Peter Lakai at the Hurricanes and Rob Rush at the Blues.
But, equally, you would do well to watch the veterans closely.
Take Damian McKenzie, for example. He took the 2022 season off for the Chiefs to chase the yen in Japan. He sits on 879 points from 95 games for the franchise, so a couple of milestones loom. Firstly, he needs just eight points to surpass Stephen ‘Beaver’ Donald as the top points scorer for the team. And when he raises the ton of games, he’ll join a select group of Chiefs centurions. He may just beat his great mate Anton Lienert-Brown to that mark.
McKenzie was listed as a first five in the Chiefs squad announcement, but they also have Bryn Gatland, Josh Ioane and Rivez Reihana who can run the cutter. He may find himself called on to cut some shapes from the back field, which is where he is most effective.
It is worth noting that McKenzie has never been to a Rugby World Cup, having busted his knee before the 2019 global event. He will be gunning for Stephen Perofeta’s All Blacks squad position and is more than capable of usurping the Blues and Taranaki player.
He lost his All Blacks’ place in 2022 due to his Japanese sojourn. That’s on him, but he did return to New Zealand rugby and played much better for Waikato than his critics gave him credit for, and he remains one of the best goalkickers in the nation. He was as sharp as a tack for the
All Blacks XV on their northern tour.
McKenzie is a match-winner for the Chiefs, as we saw several times in 2021, and he can do a job in two positions, as required. Jordie Barrett’s integration into the All Blacks midfield will help his cause no end, as it frees up space in that logjam at fullback. Will Jordan could shift there, or Beauden Barrett, but the former might still be best for the All Blacks, for now, on the right wing, while the latter might be best suited to the No 22 jersey now as a kind of super sub.
D Mac has played no less than 40 Tests and while he has rarely let the men in black down, he has also failed to nail down a starting berth. That is no reflection on him, as such, but a clear indicator of the competition in those two pivotal positions.
But we know this: he is gold in a squad situation, making him still odds-on to make it to France. At the Chiefs, he is a franchise player, capable of slotting a pressure goal or igniting the attack from deep on the counter or from phase play.
Watch him go for the Chiefs in 2023. If he catches fire, it will not just be the Waikato-based team that will benefit.