All Blacks great fumes over Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett debate: ‘Are they going to be f*****g around again?’
All Blacks playmakers Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett, and fellow Test star Will Jordan.
Justin Marshall desperately hopes Dave Rennie does not go down the road of selecting Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie at full-back.
With Will Jordan out through injury and Isaac Hutchinson, who was tipped as a bolter, also on the sidelines, they have no out-and-out 15 in the training squad.
Test rookie Josh Moorby featured there at times for the Hurricanes last year but predominantly played wing, which ultimately leaves Barrett, McKenzie or possibly even Ruben Love as the likely full-back options.
It has left Marshall incredibly frustrated, believing that it would be mistake to put one of the fly-half options at 15.
‘It hasn’t worked’
“We’re particularly thin at full-back and I’m worried about that. If you look at Will Jordan being out possibly all the way up to maybe even the first Test against the Springboks – he’s certainly out of the Nations Championship – so there’s your number one starting full-back not going to be available,” he said on the GBRANZ podcast.
“Are they going to be f*****g around again putting Beauden or Damian there? You know how that’s going to make me feel.
“How are we evolving by doing that? It hasn’t worked, so how all of a sudden is it going to click? That is one of the key positions, it is part of the spine: eight, nine, 10, 15.
“There is no out-and-out full-back there and I think a guy like Chay Fihaki must be feeling a bit disappointed as he fulfils all of the requirements of a very good full-back.
“We’re going to be forced for three Test matches to play a player who doesn’t play full-back every week in that jersey because they couldn’t select at 15 out of every side in this country.
“I just wonder whether [Isaac] Hutchinson was on their radar [before injury], that’s all I would say.”
Marshall was joined on the show by fellow All Blacks legend Kieran Read, who agreed that Jordan is a big miss for the Rennie’s men.
“I think what we’ve seen in how the Hurricanes play and how the Chiefs have played with a genuine game-breaking full-back,” Read said.
“They’ve got [Callum] Harkin [at the ‘Canes] and Hutchinson at the Chiefs. They know the position, they play it week in week out and they add X-factor.
“Maybe because we’re going to have some X-factor on the wings and Ruben Love will drop back and cover that position, they can afford to keep Damian McKenzie, but I would like the fact that we’ve got a full-back and that’s what Will Jordan brings to this team, and it’s huge gap when he’s not there.
“It’s not just his ability and time on ball, it’s the stuff that he does around it with his voice and vision, and setting up the entire field. It just allows everyone else to do their role really well.”
Marshall’s proposal
Marshall then floated the idea of shifting Jordie Barrett to full-back, stating that it would bring him more “comfort” than McKenzie or Barrett.
“The only thing I was thinking when I was looking at that squad is how the midfield looks. We’ve got a back three which is going to be compromised because Will Jordan’s gone,” he said.
“We’ve got Jordie Barrett there who’s playing some of his best rugby, we’ve got Quinn Tupaea. They have tried playing both those two together before and I don’t know if it was that successful.
“In a strange way in a strange world, I would see the ability for us to play Jordie at full-back because he brings everything you need to that full-back jersey.
“Wouldn’t you be really assured if Jordie Barrett was in the 15 jersey? He ticks every single box. He’s got a big boot, he’s great in the air, he’s a hard defender.
“He gives me more comfort in the 15 jersey than what Beauden or Damian McKenzie does.”
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