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'He's our guy': Clayton McMillan confirms reasons behind McKenzie switch to fullback
By Ben Smith
Chiefs head coach has confirmed the reasons behind moving Damian McKenzie to fullback for last night’s win over the Blues in Auckland.
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McKenzie started every game of the season for the Chiefs last year in the No. 10 jersey, before being used by Scott Robertson as the All Blacks first five.
The Chiefs loaded bench featured six capped All Blacks, which may have also included McKenzie had enough players been fit.
“If we had a couple more backs available, then it may well have been that Damian started on the bench,” McMillan said.
“But that wasn’t the case so he started at the back. He’s our guy, you know he’s our 10.
“The other guys are talented and chasing him, but tonight Josh got an opportunity and I thought he did extremely well.”
Without fullback Shaun Stevenson, who is on a short-term sabbatical, McKenzie was a stop-gap solution.
The decision to load the bench was partly to reward those who had done the full pre-season with starting roles, and partly to “look after the players”.
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However, McKenzie proved to be a difference maker once back at first five after Jacomb was subsitituted in the 50th minute, coming up with two massive plays.
The 29-year-old livewire bagged a try scooting around the outside of All Black centre Rieko Ioane with the Blues’ defence stretched in the 53rd minute
In the dying stages of the game in the 75th minute McKenzie bagged his second of the night to give the Chiefs an unassailable lead.
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You credit the room too much intelligence Clayton! No, no they don’t.
DMac comes out and basically proves what we already knew, he’s a natural #15, but nah, he’s their #10.
Start Jacombs at 10 and McKenzie at 15 for the first 50-60 minutes each match, and let McKenzie close out the matches at 10, just as the Chiefs did against the Blues, as long as the Chiefs are consistently winning
This gives Jacombs a chance to reach his full potential and maybe become the next great All Black 10. I’m not sold he is that he is the next great 10 but if you don’t give him a shot, you will never know. Meanwhile, McKenzie is not going to get any better or worse playing at fly half 20-30 minutes per match.
Dmac’s not had enough game time at 10 himself to do that.
If you watch the game you can see a couple of times he’s lost with what to do. I’m afraid for Josh the ABs immediate term picture is more important.
Josh needs a start at first five every now and then if he's to develop.
Yep, he and Trask have the jersey next year with Dmac playing in the Top 14 right.
Plenty enough opportunity till Shaun gets back.
Smart decision by Clayton to use the guys with a full preperation too, visibly superior to those that started late (they had worked on a gameplan).
Josh is a great player under dmac I also.agree with you hense why the chiefs squad is so strong