Ewen McKenzie Quotes (65 Quotes)

Playing 13 certainly is a challenge but Huxley is a guy we approached to play here with NSW, so we've always had a reasonable opinion of him.

I'll certainly be making sure Wendell is not in any doubt about my expectations.

Theoretically he is available but I'd like to sit down with him first. Condition wise he's apparently pretty good but he hasn't got any match practice.

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.

I gave him a reference personally. I wanted to go along because I thought it was really out of character for him,

Aaron stepped up and led the side after Tim was injured, and as a result he played one of his best games.

I've been through this sort of stuff before so it doesn't worry me. But it was a little bit unnerving. By the time we came through the clouds, there wasn't much distance to the ground. Everyone would be comfortable with safety-first.

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.

The number eight position is one of our most hotly contested positions.

He's been putting pressure on and I was pleased to give him an opportunity. I thought he handled it well.

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

He has taken a step forward yesterday, there is no question.

The guys who run out there need to make sure they're delivering.

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.

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

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.

As long as we're accumulating points, it doesn't worry me how we score them. I actually see it as an indication that our instinctive play is becoming more precise.

When we start training tomorrow we'll just have a look and see how things are going.

If you watch the Cats closely, there's more variety in how they play. In terms of the South African teams, they're one of the few sides that, for instance, kick off to different areas. They don't have some of the predictable aspects of some of the other teams ..w. And he Rose adds a bit of spark, and he's played that five-eighth role, so it won't be foreign to him. Certainly he looks to be a little bit different to the guy he's replaced, so in that sense there's a little less predictability there.

We'll definitely have a look at that. To be fair to someone like Benny, he's been playing 30 odd minutes every week. When we put people on for 30 minutes, it usually means we have a fair bit of confidence in what they can contribute.

We felt there was too much fixation, internally and externally, on the numbers the players had on their backs. The players shouldn't be inhibited by their run-on number. Psychologically it's already working wonders.

We have to be mindful about spreading the workload around. We are conscious of the fact that it is hard for everyone to play every minute of every game.

It's a shame for Will after making his Super 14 debut last week but we believe it's only a week-long injury. We're fortunate to have cover in that position so when we name our team on Thursday we'll still be in good shape.

We know a team like the Blues can use fractured possession and use it well, so we've got to make sure that we're not loose with our ball control, which we certainly were last week.

I'd have to say set piece wise, we were pretty average at times, so there's certainly some improvement there.

We thought he had potential and he showed us he has.

There's no question that it would be an advantage, if you're going to play England pretty much two weeks after Super 14 finishes, if there are some combinations there it might be an advantage, particularly in that short term where you're trying to bring something together quickly. But I'm not sure what combinations you've got. Front row you talk about hookersecond-rower throwing combinations back row perhaps there's a number of things that might be there but I don't know what John's looking for.

He has the necessary maturity and experience and is certainly an asset at a time when we've been struggling a bit with injury.

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

They are very motivated to improve the perception that people have developed of them.

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

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

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.

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

We're not saying that he didn't throw punches, so we're not expecting no penalty. I guess it's the severity of it that we're looking at to be honest.

Another tough decision for us to make as Will Caldwell is the man to miss out this time but we believe this is the right balance for the Crusaders.

This is going tough match, make no mistake about that, so we'll need to be switched on from the opening whistle.

The idea was to get another day of treatment for him.

It was a moment of madness, ... He plays hard but that wasn't like him at all. I think very highly of him and I'm sure he will have learnt a lesson. He has paid a high price, after making his debut against the All Blacks in Auckland on September 3. You would think he was a good chance to go on the Wallabies tour and, if not, he would have come with us to Europe.

He was going to head to Europe and we made some moves to incorporate him in our academy because we thought he was too good a player to lose overseas.

I assume they are drawing a line in the sand at this point in time and from now on everyone who is guilty of any off-field incident with alcohol is going to suffer a similar penalty.

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.

We just have to wait and see. Given he's not had a lot of time with the team it's a bit much to expect him to come in for such a big game and do all the calling.

I felt my first year we definitely suffered when he wasn't available through injury and I think the wins and losses probably proved that. I think we took a step forward last year and we've continued to recruit to make sure we're not solely reliant on one player in any position. So I'll just use these next couple of games to have a look at the options.

He is never short of an opinion on Australian rugby, so he'd have knowledge there's no question about that, but I feel like we've got pretty good knowledge of them.

The next person that wants to sign with the Force is going to want a bit of the action too.

We don't care whether it is hostile or whatever, it doesn't matter to us, we are happy to get in there and get in the mood for the match.

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.

We were off the pace a touch. You just can't adjust to the 10-hour time difference in seven days, and that's maybe why we fell away. Still, it was frustrating sitting in the coaches box, seeing the points slip by.

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.