THE GREAT RACE McKenzie fails to edge Barrett in much-anticipated ‘Bronco’ test
The Bronco bragging rights remain with Beauden Barrett.
All Blacks team-mate Damian McKenzie was expected to offer Barrett some stiff competition in the gruelling fitness test, but despite topping the Chiefs’ charts yesterday and going close to a personal best, McKenzie was still around 10 seconds off the scorching time of his fellow playmaker.
Barrett stunned all with a time of 4min 12sec at Blues training on Monday – wiping eight seconds off his previous best for the 1.2km shuttle run which is completed in five sets of 20m, 40m and 60m distances. It is a standard test among all the Super Rugby sides.
All Blacks strength and conditioning coach Nic Gill told on Tuesday that McKenzie ‘‘normally gives Beauden a pretty good push’’ and was looking forward to seeing the comparison later in the week.
So, in crisp, sunny conditions in Hamilton yesterday it was into his work on running down his mate for McKenzie, who carries three years less in the legs and ‘advantages’ of around 12cm less in height and 11kg less in weight.
However, in a lunchtime Zoom call with media, Chiefs assistant coach Tabai Matson said that while McKenzie is ‘‘jet shoes quick when it comes to a Bronco’’, the honours were staying with Barrett.
While Matson didn’t give a precise time for McKenzie, he said he was ‘‘in the [4min] 20s’’, which also went some way to highlighting how good Blues halfback Jonathan Ruru’s 4min 14sec was on Monday too.
‘‘There were no world records broken, but remember, we’re not at sea level here in Hamilton, so they’ve got an advantage up in Auckland, that’s what I’ll say,’’ Matson quipped.
‘‘We had a bit of a spread, guys have been doing things differently [training during lockdown].
‘‘But Christos [head of strength and conditioning Christos Argus] is really happy with where we are at as a group.’’
Other Chiefs players high in Bronco testing included rookie first five-eighth Kaleb Trask, winger Sean Wainui, flanker Lachaln Boshier, and All Blacks duo Brad Weber and Luke Jacobson.
For Jacobson, the Covid19-enforced break was somewhat of a silver lining, giving the talented back-rower extra time to rest up his troubled hamstring.
After a long layoff with concussion that forced him to withdraw from the World Cup, the
23-year-old then lasted just 10 minutes in his comeback match against the Brumbies on February 22, before missing two further games ahead of the competition’s halt.
Along with Jacobson, Matson confirmed All Blacks prop Nepo Laulala – who was on the verge of returning from a round-one knee injury just as the competition stopped – would also be in line for the June 13 start date for Super Rugby Aotearoa.
However, the Chiefs aren’t counting on having fellow ABs frontrower Angus Ta’avao available for the 10-week competition, after he injured a quadricep in round one, was perhaps going to be out until around this time, but then underwent surgery soon before lockdown.
One player who has been welcomed back into the ranks is outside back Etene Nanai-Seturo, who had previously committed to the New Zealand Sevens team’s Olympics preparation.