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Damian McKenzie celebrates scoring a crucial try against Scotland.
Damian McKenzie celebrates scoring a crucial try against Scotland. Photograph: Stickland/INPHO/Rex/Shutterstock
Damian McKenzie celebrates scoring a crucial try against Scotland. Photograph: Stickland/INPHO/Rex/Shutterstock

Damian McKenzie: the diminutive full-back making a big impact with All Blacks

This article is more than 6 years old
The 22-year-old with blistering pace, wonderful awareness and a magician’s hands has come a long way in a short time for New Zealand

On the 1,000-acre dairy farm near Waikaka in the remote part of Southland where Damian McKenzie grew up there was plenty of time to dream. He would spend his days chucking a ball around with his older brother Marty, wondering if life would ever take him beyond Gore or Invercargill. Not too many rise from the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island – next stop Antarctica – to the top of world rugby.

Sitting at the back of the same room in Cardiff on Thursday was one who did: Jeff Wilson, the all-round Kiwi wizard of his day, who played cricket and rugby for New Zealand and once scored 66 points in a schoolboy game when four-point tries still existed (it would have been 75 in today’s money). Then there was Brian McKechnie, born in Gore, who kicked the goal that denied Wales a famous 1978 win over the All Blacks after Andy Haden dived out of the final lineout at the old Cardiff Arms Park (though the argument over the exact penalised offence rages to this day).

McKechnie, another rugby player turned international cricketer, also happened to be the batsman to whom Trevor Chappell bowled the underarm delivery that caused a monumental trans-Tasman row and led to New Zealand’s prime minister, Robert Muldoon, to remark: “How appropriate the Australian team wears yellow.”

But that was February 1981, 14 years before McKenzie was born. The 22-year-old full-back says he has never even heard of McKechnie, let alone met him. If he scores the crucial points at the Principality Stadium on Saturday only the Southland Times will make the connection.

The comparison with the gifted Wilson, though, is a decent one. Watch McKenzie at play – his Super Rugby highlights reel will instantly banish any wintry gloom – and he makes the impossible look routine. A magician’s hands, great feet, wonderful awareness, blistering pace ... the All Blacks have yet another twinkling box-office star. “His speed is ridiculous,” said his former Chiefs team-mate James Lowe, now with Leinster. “He’s like a 5ft 4in version of Beauden Barrett.”

The blond pocket rocket is actually 5ft 8in but, in his own words, weighs barely “80kg dripping wet”. Imagine a Kiwi successor to Shane Williams with an even more dazzling box of tricks. On top of the game-breaking offloads, deft interplay and lightning incursions from the back, he also kick goals. To foster a positive mindset his face crinkles into a deliberate smile just before he kicks them, making him look the happiest professional athlete in the world.

Give him a ball and a licence to play and he could still almost be the carefree kid side-stepping around in Southland. “We had a lot of space growing up. We were pretty lucky; we had the farm to run around on and were always outside.”

To him there is absolutely no point being dull on a rugby field or fearing the big beasts. “You don’t go out there to sit and wait for 80 minutes to come up and be relieved. It’s about making the most of every opportunity and getting excited by that. It’s about being positive and not being afraid. When you’re afraid you start second-guessing yourself. It’s a great challenge being small – when you’re playing against people twice your size it’s an awesome challenge. You need to embrace it.”

In his 11 Tests, McKenzie has been true to his word. Since mid-August he has contributed five tries, including a crucial one against Scotland last Saturday. Gone is the disappointment of omission from the Test squad to face the Lions, which briefly led to speculation about a possible move north to Leicester. The question now is whether he, Barrett or Rieko Ioane (the other two have been nominated for the 2017 world player of the year award) is the quicker All Black off the mark. “We don’t do a lot of races in training but we do sprints in the gym ... there’s a lot of accelerations, getting to our top end and trying to hold that. Rieko is quick and Beaudy is rapid as well. It would be an interesting race between those two.” Modest as well as swift.

The All Black selectors also regard him as a playmaking alternative to Barrett at 10, his old position at Christ’s College in Christchurch where he was a popular 1st XV captain and head of his boarding house and a school prefect. “Growing up I always played first five-eighth ... I moved to full-back the year I played for NZ Under-20s and have been there since. I guess the skill set is very similar but you’ve got a bit more time at 15. At 10, you’re up on that frontline and defensively it’s very different. In terms of attack you’re running the show and calling the shots.”

While there were some who wondered if he would make the highest level, McKenzie is more resilient than he looks. His father, Brent, represented Southland and the Junior All Blacks at full-back – brother Marty plays 10 for Taranaki – and he also has Maori heritage courtesy of his mother, Moana. “Mum played hockey so there’s a bit of speed in that side of the family.” For good measure he plays golf off a single-figure handicap but talent alone does not make great All Blacks. While Steve Hansen has been suitably convinced on the fortitude front – “He’s got plenty under the left nipple” – McKenzie acknowledges Super Rugby is very different from its international cousin: “When you get to Test rugby it’s a lot harder. There are not as many holes as you might be used to seeing.”

Wales beware: it will not stop him trying. McKenzie has admitted to suffering from claustrophobia – “If I was trapped in a cupboard I wouldn’t last too long” – but, even at the end of a long year, is enthused by the prospect of a passionate Cardiff audience.

“Last weekend at Murrayfield was one of the best atmospheres I’ve experienced and I’ve heard it’s pretty similar here. You see it on TV but there’s no better feeling than experiencing it live. Walking out the crowd is so close to you … it’s such a great atmosphere to be involved in.”

It is also the perfect stage for a natural-born entertainer. Catch him if you can.

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