Take the rough with the smooth with McKenzie
You just didn't know what was going on in that head of his. Instinct is such a crucial thing for rugby players.
OPINION: While watching Damian McKenzie earn his crust in Cape Town there was a temptation to trade a cup of tepid tea for a flute of champagne.
Then, moments later, you had to place the champers back in the icebox and decide whether to instead take a gulp of dishwater just to teach yourself a lesson for being so over-enthusiastic in the first instance.
Because that’s what it was like watching McKenzie, who started the test against the Springboks at fullback before shifting to the right wing to replace the injured Nehe Milner-Skudder.
You just didn’t know what was going on in that head of his. Instinct is such a crucial thing for rugby players. If they are confident and prepared to back themselves, anything is possible. McKenzie clearly likes to do that.
We saw McKenzie’s instincts at work in Cape Town when he - and only he can explain what he was thinking at the time - decided to take a quick throw-in to himself to launch an attack three minutes after the halftime hooter had sounded at Newlands Stadium.
With the All Blacks clinging to a 8-3 lead, and some of his forwards running on wobbly legs as they tried not to succumb to exhaustion, it made sense for McKenzie to let the ball stay out and allow referee Jerome Garces to call for halftime.
Wrong call, thought McKenzie. He was having none of that. He wanted play to continue.
It could have been costly; several of the big men in black with single digits on their backs looked absolutely shot. He wasn’t the only one at fault, but it seemed that everyone caught the bug during the bizarre scenes that followed, as both teams ran the ball from everywhere.
As All Blacks skipper Kieran Read noted with a wry grin in his speech after fulltime: ‘‘A couple of egos on halftime didn’t want to kick it out …’’
Still, we shouldn’t complain, should we? The All Blacks won, and no-one could state they didn’t get their money’s worth from watching a match that promised little and delivered plenty.
So back to McKenzie. How good could he be? Very good. Yes, he makes mistakes but almost anything seems possible as he uses his ability to hop from foot to foot to beat tacklers and his speed to hare into gaps.
It was McKenzie, by now operating on the right wing so David Havili could operate at fullback, who scored the crucial try in the 70th minute. Havili beat two tacklers, and fed McKenzie who just touched the flame to the gunpowder in his boots when blasting outside Francois Louw to run about 48m to score.
The good thing about the Chiefs and Waikato representative is that he is always looking for work.
On a couple of occasions he jumped into first receiver on both sides of the ruck, he took several kick-off receipts and not only did he make a try saving tackle on Springboks halfback Ross Cronje in the 22nd minute - he also bounced to his feet and stole the ball.
McKenzie wasn’t quite as prominent on attack as he was in the first spell, even though he scored his try. He came off his wing to take an inside pass and make a break, but lost the ball, and later he also spilled a transfer by Ryan Crotty.
The All Blacks selectors say they want to see McKenzie at first fiveeighth at some point, to allow him to get his hands on the ball more.
Given Ben Smith, Israel Dagg and Jordie Barrett are unavailable, they could resist the urge to fast-track that plan. We are already seeing how dangerous McKenzie can be when running the pill back from the deep.
Rub some of those rough edges off and we might have something to really rave about.