All Blacks defence coach says No. 10 jersey 'should be' fair game

Ahead of the All Blacks‘ Northern Tour, one of the biggest selection debates is who should play in the No. 10 jersey as incumbent Damian McKenzie races to iron out crinkles in his game.

All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson himself reflected on McKenzie’s performances over the team’s opening nine Tests and acknowledged there were some rocks and diamonds, saying eight out of 10 plays the 29-year-old made would be “unbelievable” while the other two would leave you asking “what’s happened?”

Alternatively, Beauden Barrett can be seen as more of a steady hand. With over 130 Test matches in the black jersey to his name, the 33-year-old offers something different in the way he leads the team around the park.

Also to factor in is the team’s poor record in the final quarters of games throughout The Rugby Championship, applying extra pressure to the bench selections and asking the question of how the team should distribute their best talent across the matchday 23.

All Blacks defence coach Scott Hansen also looks after the halves partnership in the team and assessed the selection battle between the two playmakers following the final game of the Rugby Championship campaign.

“Well, the beauty there is that they’ve obviously got their different skill sets around how they lead us around the field,” he told Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB.

“You saw when Damian came on last night, just his intent to get to the line, his ability to hit the short pass. Whereas Beaudy with his experience and game management, just getting us into locations that allow us to apply pressure.

“The gift and the beauty that we have with both of these outstanding players is they have different subtleties in their game which we need. And then you add Will Jordan and the likes around that, and now we’ve got game managers across the field.

“I thought Beaudy coming in last night, and through the week, gave us great experience. And again, DMac has been leading us really well also.”

Despite McKenzie owning selection up until the most recent Test, Hansen said there’s no doubt the jersey was up for grabs, as all jerseys in the All Blacks effectively are.

“It should be. It should be because when you’re picking an All Black team it should be a hard one to pick,” he explained.

“What we’re focussed on is giving DMac a chance to steer this team and lead it and he’s done that really well. He’s only had a number of starts really, consistently, in the 10 role and this year he’s done really well building that.

“What we have to do also is build depth around that, and Beaudy was given that opportunity to lead the team around the field from 10. The main thing for us is just building that depth around our 10.

“We have a lot of confidence in whoever is out there leading the team, putting the ball in front of the team, getting us in the right areas of the field. It’ll be a work-on for us right through.

“Really happy where DMac’s at, Beaudy came in last night and established his presence on the team, so, we’re definitely heading in the right direction.”