McKenzie teed off by goalkicking questions
It’s fair to say goalkicking is a touchy subject for Chiefs star Damian McKenzie at the moment.
Having been so heroic with his work off the tee this season – landing several late matchwinning goals – the first five-eighth/ fullback has hit a rough patch over the past fortnight.
After missing three gettable penalty attempts in the Super Rugby Aotearoa final against the Crusaders in Christchurch, McKenzie followed that up with three more misses (two conversions, one penalty) in the second half of last weekend’s 20-19 win over the Force in Perth in the opening round of the transTasman competition.
Having been going at 80 per cent during the regular season of the Aotearoa campaign, he has shot 5/11 at 45 per cent since.
Speaking to fresh off a few pots at goal at the end of training yesterday, McKenzie immediately bristled when asked if the missed kicks were a concern for him at the moment.
‘‘Oh, you know, it’s only human – people miss kicks,’’ he said.
Asked to expand, such as whether he had been able to identify what was going wrong, if something had perhaps changed in his technique, or if it was to do with confidence, McKenzie said:
‘‘No. Next question. Next question. Come on.’’
Asked whether he was all right,
McKenzie said: ‘‘There’s nothing wrong with the kicking. It’s a couple of weeks where I’ve missed a couple of kicks. But that’s only natural, and I know what I need to improve on.
‘‘It’s just technique, mate. I’ve missed a couple of kicks, but I’ve made a few good ones too.’’
Having won so many games thanks to their own late kicks, the Chiefs then had Domingo Miotti’s after-the-siren missed conversion to thank for their latest get-out-ofjail play. ‘‘As a kicker, it’s either a hero moment, or you miss it, so I felt for him, but that’s rugby,’’ McKenzie said.
Ironically, in this quickfire competition it may be that McKenzie
opts for the posts less, with bonus points set to play a crucial role in separating teams at the end of the five weeks.
But assistant coach Nick White said the Chiefs were probably guilty of eyeing up the maximum five points against the Force before earning the right to actually win the game.
‘‘We just didn’t play to our structure, and we gave stupid penalties away, [made] silly errors, and if we’d just played a bit of field position and just held onto the ball...
‘‘We were turning the ball over and then giving it straight back. So unfortunately we were our own worst enemy.’’