'Our greatest impact player': Evaluating Damian McKenzie's World Cup role

The All Blacks No 10 jersey has been wrestled back and forth throughout this World Cup cycle, but just as it looked settled that Richie Mounga was the man to lead the charge at the World Cup, Damian McKenzie stepped in.

Returning from a one-year contract with Japan’s Tokyo Sungoliath, McKenzie instantly elevated his Chiefs team to the top side in Super Rugby Pacific, beating Mo’unga’s Crusaders in the opening match of the season and going on to sustain just one blemish in the entire regular season.

McKenzie’s game had evolved, his erratic play was diluted by a more structural-minded attacking skillset and coach Clayton McMillan handed his flyhalf the keys to running a slick, dangerous attack.

It was Mo’unga’s Crusaders who again had the last laugh but McKenzie had earned himself a return to higher honours and a shot at the throne.

And so in the first test of the All Blacks’ season, McKenzie was handed the keys to the All Blacks attack and after a shaky start, his quality came through.

Ian Foster handed those keys back to Richie Mo’unga a week later in Auckland and as expected, the No 10 jersey remains in the Super Rugby champion’s hands.

But it was never a starting role that McKenzie was slated for, his energetic and unpredictable play promised fans a wild game-closer and that’s where his absence has been most disappointing.

“I think we missed him at the last World Cup,” Sir John Kirwin told The Breakdown. “I still think he’s the greatest impact player we’ve got. He’s transformed himself from a fullback to a first-five at international level. That is a talented young man.

“But he brings something different, at standoff he plays like a Rugby League standoff, runs across the field. That is gold in a World Cup.”

Throwing a player out there who can change the attacking threat of your team like McKenzie sounds like a wonderfully chaotic way to punish teams late in the match and put close games to the sword. But, it’s not the direction selectors have taken to date.

With Beaduen Barrett claiming the fullback role, the All Blacks bench is considered better served by midfield and outside-back options, with plenty of versatility in the preferred backline making those bench selections the best bet.

With that said, despite Beauden Barrett’s ability to play first five, Kirwin’s co-panellist Jeff Wilson believes McKenzie should be the next man up in the 10 jersey.

“It enables us to focus on Beaduen Barrett as a fullback, and it enables Beauden Barrett to focus on playing that position knowing that’s going to be that’s where he can have his biggest impact for this side.

“Now I would be surprised if at any stage anything happens to Richie Mo’unga and – I hope it doesn’t – if they move Beauden Barrett forward. I think they’ve settled on how they want to play the game and Beauden’s owning that backfield with the option of Will Jordan moving back there as well.”