Exclusive: Harlequins playmaker Bella McKenzie talks bouncing back, stepping up & learning
©JMP for Harlequins
Playing Bristol Bears in her final game of 2022, Bella McKenzie and her Harlequins teammates will be looking to get back to winning ways following their 27-0 loss to Exeter Chiefs in the previous round of Allianz Premier 15s action.
A second loss of this new season, the Australia international was left frustrated as the team’s hosts scored all of their points in the first half at Sandy Park. Despite the loss, Harlequins head into 2023 in a strong position, Amy Turner’s team are fourth in the league.
“It was frustrating as well as disappointing,” McKenzie said. “We didn’t perform to the best that we could have. That first half especially, we didn’t put our head in dark places, and nothing was coming off for us.
“It was frustrating and disappointing to know that we are better than that. We just didn’t put our foot on the pedal from the start. We are still top four, but no one likes losing. Especially not scoring any points.
“Going into Bristol, we are still very confident in our game plan and our systems. Just a few little tweaks here and there, and I think we might have some players back available which would be great for the team.
“We keep looking forward, and obviously we will go back review the game and see what we can tweak for the Bristol game. I know the girls will bounce back and be ready.”
Arriving in West London following the Wallaroos’ quarter-final exit to England at the 2021 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, it didn’t take long at all for McKenzie to make an impact for the one-time Premier 15s champions.
Bagging her debut against Saracens in a 19-10 win at the Twickenham Stoop at the start of December, the fly-half scored a try in the win and had maintained her place in the starting XV ever since.
Impressing again in Quins’ 40-3 win over Sale Sharks before being subdued by Exeter in Devon, the 23-year-old is certainly enjoying her time in England so far, her spell in the northern hemisphere all coming thanks to social media.
“I was talking to another club, but it didn’t work out,” McKenzie explained, “and I actually DMed the Harlequins Instagram page. Classic slide into the DMs. Got an email and it went from there. Which is pretty funny to look back on now.
“I am loving it [being at Harlequins]. It has been an awesome start to the season so far. I feel like we are really starting to get into our stride and get some good momentum leading into Christmas.
“It has been unreal. Everyone has been super welcoming and supportive with both Kaitlan [Leaney] and I moving here. I really feel part of the Quins family.”
Both McKenzie and her international teammate Leaney signed from the New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney. In the AP15s’ relatively short history, players from down under have been relatively rare commodities.
At just 23 McKenzie will play in the competition while still developing as a player, all while also being an established international in Wallaroos and with experience outside of her native Australia after having played for Matatu in the 2022 Super Rugby Aupiki competition.
Even reunited with a former teammate from her time in Christchurch in the form of Liz McGoverne, who now plays for Exeter Chiefs, a weekend ago, McKenzie is enjoying the challenge of playing in England.
“I always knew Harlequins would be a step up,” she said. “Obviously, you get paid here and in Oz you don’t get paid right now for Super Rugby.
“Even the meetings and things like that, the amount of detail you can go into in a review and preview of a team, we don’t have that available as yet in Australia because it is such a small comp. It is eight weeks long.
“Whereas this comp is 20 games home and away, and then a final series. So the level of footy we play and the amount of footy you get to play over here is very different to Oz.
“We are slowly, slowly getting there and I am sure in the near future they will have plans in place for a comp as good as the Prem 15s.”
While with the Waratahs, McKenzie balanced her rugby with a full time job as a care worker for people various disabilities, but in England is able to focus fully on rugby. It is a stark contrast and one that the 23-year-old will likely be better for.
But while rugby union is the playmakers primary source of income at present, a peruse of McKenzie’s Wikipedia page will tell you that it was rugby league that first stuck it’s hooks into the Australian.
ESPN journalist Brittany Mitchell described McKenzie as having “grew up with the Steeden in her hands as opposed to the Gilbert”, and as a youngster dreamt of playing for the St George Dragons.
Before taking to rugby union, McKenzie first had to stop playing rugby altogether. Mocing to Frensham School as a boarder, there was no rugby programme available at the all-girls school, the 12-year-old not knowing where to look in order to carry on playing the game.
It took the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro to reignite the flame and send the youngster back in pursuit of rugby. Watching as the Aussie 7s won gold in Brazil, a year later at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas, McKenzie would get her own gold medal and set herself on the path to being a senior international rugby player.
©JMP for Harlequins
Opting to focus on the 15-a-side game in 2018, making her Australia debut in 2019 and now in the Premier 15s, it has been a mightily impressive six years so far.
“I haven’t really been playing 15s that long,” McKenzie said. “I left school in 2017, started playing 15s in 2018, debuted for Australia in 2019 and then Covid hit.
“I feel like I still have got so much to learn in the game of 15s, and I love watching rugby union now and definitely will be sticking to rugby union.
“It is just such a skilful game and the tactical side of things – you don’t really get that in league. I love that side of things, and the skill level you have to have if you are a forward or a back, always wanting to learn and grow as a player.”
If it weren’t for train strikes, Tuesday’s matchup with Dave Ward’s Bristol Bears would have been played in front of a world record crowd at Big Game 14. Instead, the biggest club fixture in the world has been moved to March, the double-header now to be played against Exeter Chiefs in what will certainly be a revenge game for both the men’s and women’s squads.
What Bristol offers right now for McKenzie and her teammates is the chance not to dwell on the game prior. A new challenge will certainly have its own threats, but after having made the addition of Abby Dow from Wasps and the impending retirement of Shaunagh Brown from the game, there is certainly motivation for the home side.
“I know the Quins team have been working really hard being the scenes to put on a good day,” McKenzie said. “I can’t wait to get back home and play at the Stoop.
“It would have been unreal to play at Twickenham, but the Stoop is our home and I can’t wait to be back home and be in front of our fans and supporters and hopefully put in a good performance and get some momentum back.”
