England v New Zealand: Damian McKenzie sets example for hosts

For 20 minutes at Murrayfield last weekend, not much was going right for Damian McKenzie.

The 30-year-old, 5ft 8in, 12-stone, blond-haired, fresh-faced player looks a bit odd among the breeze blocks blowing elsewhere on the pitch.

He felt it too, initially, after coming off the bench in the 44th minute against Scotland.

“When I came on, Kyle Steyn had scored for them,” he said.

“We started, they took a penalty kick from nine, so I got up to catch it but I couldn’t. So I hit my head.

“The blood started to flow. We were on defense most of the time. We came across an attack, I took it out but I couldn’t get very far.

“Then I missed Darcy Graham’s tackle, luckily Cam Roigard saved the try in the corner but I cut my jaw. It started bleeding and I thought ‘here we go, it’s going to be a long last 15 minutes’.”

It was a crucial 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, the score was 17-17. The All Blacks were defeated due to Wallace Sititi’s yellow card. Scotland smelled history.

After 120 years of trying, a first win over New Zealand was just a point and a quarter of an hour away.