Ewen McKenzie Quotations

There are two issues with Mat: emotionally he is not right and physically he is off the pace.

Mat was very keen to be fit for this match, but in the end he wasn't right.

Peter's played very well so far and his leadership will be important from the back,

He did take that hard. You're sometimes put in those positions where there's a spur of the moment decision and there's probably a million people out there with the benefit of hindsight who can probably tell you you've done the wrong thing. I think he learnt a bit there, but I supported what he did and we moved on.

We're playing the best team in the competition and we've got to have fit players.

He's a bit old school in that context.

He is one of those late developing players. He's been giving a good account of himself on training field and the paddock. If he keeps improving that is something you can't ignore.

He is vice-captain and one of our key players so I will be surprised if he doesn't.

Just play on and see who jumps up. We don't use them.

I think there's two issues. Obviously emotionally he's not right and physically he's off the pace. We'll definitely start doing some one-on-one stuff with him shortly so he's on top of that. He's definitely off the pace at the moment and he knows that and I can see that so there's no point in trying to get him to play at anything less than 100 per cent. So I think it's a fairly objective decision.

Rocky has been training with us the whole time. I don't have any issues about his match fitness, because he is very good at pushing himself hard off the field.

I stressed there is not much between some of the players, so the guys who run out there need to make sure they deliver.

Where he has come from to where he is now is incredible and if you keep delivering, eventually you will get an opportunity.

Benn has actually pulled up remarkably well, so we will just see how he is in the next 24, 48 hours, but he's definitely a chance to be involved next week.

They're still going, that middle tier, you can't hold them. The money is too good in the UK. We need to find ways to counter that financially.

It's very disappointing he won't be available but I'm not slashing my wrists because I think we have other people who can step into the breach.

It looks like we're dead and buried on that one, it seems like the dollar might have beaten us. I don't think we're in the ball park at all. Players only move for three things, the program, lifestyle or money. I'm sure the lifestyle is good, but I don't think too many of the guys over there have enhanced their Test prospects this year.

It'll give us another thing to think about, there's no question about that.

They've got a very good tactical appreciation of the kicking game, they can play with width and I thought their mauling game (last week) was outstanding.

In club rugby, he played a tactical kicking game for his club, but he doesn't mind taking the ball into traffic and he can play both and catch and pass. And he's got that sleight of hand at the line where he might pass it and he might not. He's very good at using people around him to create opportunities for himself and for them, so hopefully he can display all of that on the weekend and a bit more.

I haven't really had a good discussion with him on that side of it yet so we'll do that over the next few weeks.

I haven't forgotten what I've said before, but whether you'd change your No.9 if you don't have your regular No.10 ... that's one of the things we'd have to look at.

I offered him an opportunity to come off probably a little earlier than he did, but he didn't want to. That was fine with me.

He's trained hard this week and has performed well in the role for the Wallabies in the past so we're confident in his ability to call the shots on Friday.

He's the kind of guy who doesn't fear getting stuck in and it's that kind of quality that makes people want to play alongside him.

He played against them earlier this year and I think he enjoys the challenge of those contests as much as the rest of our guys do. He did well early last year but then was out and we missed him in the business end of the season.

He played a full game with a broken nose only a couple of weeks ago, so he is pretty tough. I was not surprised about that.