McKenzie, Chiefs up against Super Rugby history
It was painful at the time for Damian McKenzie – in more ways than one.
Four weeks on it sticks out like a sore thumb – and it could prove yet costly for the Chiefs come the playoffs.
Coach Clayton McMillan left his star playmaker out of his 23 to face the Crusaders in round six of Super Rugby Pacific, citing “a niggly knee”.
Heading into that match, the Crusaders had played five and lost five. Since that match, they have played two and lost two.
But on Good Friday in Christchurch, the red-and-blacks got up 37-26 to ensure they would at least not suffer the ignominy of a winless season.
The Chiefs had beaten the Highlanders at home the week before and went on to beat Moana Pasifika at home the week after.
It was curious that McKenzie wasn’t rested for one of those matches instead, with the trip south easily the most difficult of the three on paper, even with the Crusaders struggling.
Even curiouser was the fact that after his weekend off, McKenzie played a full 80 in a 68-12 rout of Moana Pasifika – a big exertion for a player that supposedly couldn’t be risked at all just eight days earlier.
“I'll put it this way: I wasn't 100%,” McKenzie said this week, addressing the week off – one of his two All Blacks rest weeks – for the first time. “With my kicking, it was probably less than 50%.
“I guess you can play through that. I probably would have been able to get through the game, but that's another week where you're not helping it out or making sure you're getting it right.”
McKenzie said it was “difficult to watch” as the Chiefs suffered a “tough loss” to the Crusaders, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
“Hindsight's a great thing, isn't it? Now you go, should I have pushed through? But at the end of the day, I didn't.
“Obviously it's not great having the loss, but it is what it is now.”
That loss in round six was the second of three the Chiefs have suffered this season, after a defeat away to the Reds in round three and before another away to the undefeated, table-topping Hurricanes in round eight, prior to their bye last weekend.
After losing just once during the regular season in 2023 before going down to the Crusaders in the final at their Waikato Stadium home, in Scott Robertson’s last match in charge before moving on to the All Blacks, the Chiefs entered 2024 as the title favourites.
But they now have plenty of work to do to win their first silverware since 2013, finding themselves fifth on the ladder with a 5-3 record, thanks in part to the fact that they were on the receiving end of the biggest upset of the season in Christchurch.
Only two teams have ever won a Super Ru*gby title from outside the top two spots
– the 1999 Crusaders, who entered the playoffs in fourth, and the 2015 Highlanders, who did so too, but would have been second if not for the conference format in use at the time.
The Chiefs have a 14-point gap to close to the Hurricanes in first and a nine-point gap to close to the Blues in the second – the teams they face in the penultimate and final rounds of the regular season, the former at home and the latter in Auckland.
Before then they are away to the Waratahs tonight, at home against the Western Force, away against Moana Pasifika in Auckland, and away against the Melbourne Rebels, who sit one point above them in fourth.
Home advantage in the quarterfinals and semifinals – and, if the Hurricanes collapse, the final – is still there to be won, but McKenzie, whose knee is now “good as gold,” believes the Chiefs can “absolutely” win on the road if they have to.
“We've got an important stretch over the next four or five or six games where if we get it right, that will put us in a good position, where we could get a home playoff, potentially.
“From there, if we have to travel, it's one week at a time in playoff rugby, so we'll be ready for whatever's thrown at us.”