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Watch: Suntory star Damian McKenzie scores first League One try
By Sam Smith
All Blacks star Damian McKenzie has crossed for his first Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath try since joining the Japanese club for the 2022 League One season.
McKenzie started at fullback as Suntory romped to a 50-8 victory over Toyota Verblitz at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo to cement their place at the top of the Division 1 standings.
In doing so, the 26-year-old playmaker helped deny Springboks star Pieter-Steph du Toit and All Blacks teammate Patrick Tuipulotu victory in their Toyota debuts as he contributed 20 points to the scoreline.
Most of those points came from McKenzie's boot, but the 40-test international broke his try-scoring duck for Suntory since joining the side on a season-long deal in December.
McKenzie struck early in the second half when Suntory were handed a scrum feed five metres from Toyota's tryline.
Roaming out wide as a support player, McKenzie latched onto a deft offload from Wallabies midfielder and 2021 World Rugby Player of the Year nominee Samu Kerevi to canter in under the posts untouched.
It was a slick backline move by Suntory, whose second-five Ryoto Nakamura slotted in at first receiver and picked out Kerevi - who was joined by first-five Hikaru Tamura in running clever lines to deceive the defence - with a first-time pass.
McKenzie went on to convert his own try, which was one of seven scored by Suntory as they notched up half a century of points for the second successive match.
In Suntory's season-opener the week beforehand, McKenzie scored 25 points in his debut for the club as his side defeated the Toshiba Brave Lupus 60-48 in front of their home fans.
McKenzie and Suntory will this weekend off after their scheduled clash against the Shizuoka Blue Revs, formerly known as Yamaha Jubilo, was cancelled due to a Covid outbreak within their squad.
A decision about a potential rematch or allocation of competition points is yet to be made, with Suntory's next scheduled fixture against the Black Rams Tokyo at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium on January 30.
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Latest Comments
No just because the personal is much better than last year. I've shown no antagonism of Crusader players, you must be confusing me with someone else.
I have critized Razor for picking players he knows occasionally?
I said I'm not surprised because of his style, he's more a grinder player like Cane, not going to show up on peoples radar until you see how bad the other choices are. This year players like Clarke have been on fire and just show a bit more.
Are you one of those posters continually taking it easy on Razor because he doesn't have his Crusaders stars available? Do you think the rugby world is going to up to him suddenly once Mo'unga returns? lol
Go to commentsJohn you have been beating this drum for a couple of years, if you get proven right get back to us.
The last recent and decent Aussie coach was Ewen McKenzie, he was undermined and forced out by a couple of slimy Aussie players who were given a free pass when they should have been disciplined.
So our history since McQueen is very checkered and it seems to make little difference whether we have an Aussie coach or a Kiwi coach. The players have been entitled for a long time and we had to hit bottom to get them back into reality and to stop thinking it is all about them.
Cheika was an OK coach but his 'go our and destroy the opposition' tactic worked for a while and then didn't.
Please give me a list of great Aussie coaches that I have missed.
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