All Blacks great Justin Marshall insists that Dave Rennie will simply have to consider Damian McKenzie for the 10 role long-term after his performance on Saturday.
The playmaker switched from full-back to fly-half for the first Bledisloe Cup encounter after Ruben Love and Richie Mo’unga were ruled out through injury.
Prior to the game at Eden Park, McKenzie had started every game under new head coach Rennie at 15, but he was handed the reins at pivot at the weekend.
Josh Jacomb and Beauden Barrett were the other alternatives, but the All Blacks opted for the 31-year-old and it paid off as he produced a sublime display to help New Zealand retain the Bledisloe Cup for another year.
Mo’unga to return for Nations Championship
Although Love is out for the rest of the campaign, Mo’unga is schedule to return for the Nations Championship and it will leave Rennie with a big decision to make for those run of games in the northern hemisphere.
“What he did was make a statement towards the fact that he could start a Test match for the All Blacks and put in a performance like that, which drives the game for 80 minutes,” Marshall said on The Breakdown.
“That was probably the one area of concern given DMac’s opportunities that he’s had previously. Him controlling that whole 80 minutes was in doubt.
“When he’s been coming in after Ruben Love’s been sin-binned – the various times he’s come in – he’s looked really good, and he’s slotted in there from full-back, but the game’s already going then.
“This was his opportunity right from the start and the way he controlled it; his injections, his toughness, his work in the air and the things he set up was what you want from an All Black 10.
“Yes, he has entered into that conversation. He would have made them have to think about the fact that, ‘man, do we have that option there?’”
Marshall was joined on the show by fellow All Blacks greats Mils Muliaina and Jeff Wilson with the Test centurion believing that Rennie will move McKenzie back to 15 when Mo’unga returns.
“I think Rens likes him at full-back and if the other two were back, one of them would be the 10, but it was always, has he got the discipline to stay in control of the game plan?” Muliaina, the former New Zealand full-back, said.
“The other side of that was he was getting a lot of front-foot ball and he will commend his forwards because they were getting him some top quality ball.”
Superb All Blacks forwards
Wilson also hailed McKenzie but insisted that plenty of praise should go to the pack, who laid a superb platform for the playmaker to take advantage of.
“You give Damian McKenzie that sort of front-foot ball and he’s going to be a handful for anybody. What we did see in his game was just the supreme confidence in the way he wanted to play and I think that’s the most important thing for a 10 or 15,” he said.
“He knows exactly how this coaching team want him to play and what he can do and do well. It clearly fits with their game plan and he hardly had to kick the ball in this game.
“We controlled the air with Cam Roigard’s kicking, so he was always thinking about run first, but this was on the back of a remarkable performance by our forward pack.”