Torrid debut awaits Mckenzie
EWEN MCKENZIE should be sweating in his sleep.
Before a ball is kicked in his almighty takeover of the Wallabies, McKenzie has been painted as the great redeemer of Australian rugby.
Robbie Deans sure endured a decidedly different reception.
Putting all the hoopla aside for a moment, what happens if McKenzie can’t inspire victory in the opening Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney? Will the messiah suddenly lose his midas touch?
Not one member of McKenzie’s initial 40-man Wallabies training squad has sipped from the scared Bledisloe. It’s been 11 long years since the large silver cup resided in Australia. Indeed, it has moulded a nice wee groove in Wellington. It’s hard to see that changing.
In the last four years, the Wallabies won just three of 18 tests against the All Blacks. Overall, the men in black claimed 99 of 146 encounters. Publicly, McKenzie has been immensely positive about Australia’s chances in the Rugby Championship. Fair game. But those sort of mental scars don’t diminish overnight.
Many highlight McKenzie’s coaching record with the Queensland Reds, and relative success as Australian assistant coach against the All Blacks (5 wins from 9 games). Few mention the NSW Waratahs, where, for five years, his side lost 19 of 33 games for a 42 per cent win rate.
McKenzie must be feeling the heat. There are great expectations of success in Sydney. If that is not achieved, his men must win the next two tests in Wellington and Dunedin to have a shot at reclaiming transTasman supremacy. That’s unlikely. The Wallabies haven’t won in New Zealand since 2001, back when Carisbrook remained the ‘‘House of Pain’’.
Worryingly, Will Genia and Quade Cooper are expected to set the blueprint for the Wallabies. Nobody needs reminding what the Crusaders did to those playmakers two weeks ago. Banking on Cooper is a gamble – he is prone to flighty moments at test level. And his refusal to backtrack after his antics during the World Cup and attacks on Richie McCaw only heap more pressure on the mercurial No 10.
Sure, the Brumbies’ forwards should add some starch, but McKenzie won’t adopt Jake White’s conservative game plan.
If these concerns aren’t enough to keep McKenzie awake, how about the way the Lions embarrassed the Aussie pack?
Good luck, mate. You’ll need it.