McKenzie copped the rare timed-out penalty when he was lining up a kick at goal with just two minutes to play in Saturday night’s test against England at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
It was an important kick, too. The All Blacks led by a point, and a four-point buffer would have afforded them some space to breathe.
Instead, while McKenzie went through the routine that included the famous grin, he was pinged by Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli for taking longer than the 60sec a kicker gets from the time a penalty is called.
"I just missed the time," McKenzie said with a wry smile.
"First time, and hopefully the last.
"He did rush me in my previous kick. He said I needed to speed up. I kind of felt like I hadn’t taken too long.
"But I’m not pointing the finger at anyone. It’s completely on my shoulders. I’ve got to sort that out around my processes and just speeding things up."
McKenzie said he felt a lot of relief when the All Blacks secured victory, knowing the muck-up with his kick had come at a cost in the end.
The 60sec goal kick rule was universally acclaimed by rugby fans who had had enough of too much dead time in tests.
But, unlike other sports such as basketball, there has been no provision of a shot clock to let the kickers, or those fans, know how long is left on the timer.
"I’m not making any excuses, but it would help [if there was a shot clock]," McKenzie said.
"I think it would be great if there was a timer on the screen and you could sort of get a bit of an idea.
"My counting in my head, in 60sec, especially when I’m trying to focus on the kick, is not that great."
It was an important night for McKenzie in his 48th test.
The Invercargill-born utility wore No10 for the All Blacks for just a sixth time, but with Richie Mo’unga now in Japan — although he was in the stands watching in Dunedin — and Beauden Barrett seen as more of a fullback, he gets a chance to make the jersey his own.
While he did not got get much space against England to pull out his bag of tricks, he set up the opening try from a perfectly weighted cross kick, and did the basics well.
"England came out of the blocks early and we knew they were going to bring that intense line speed and put us under pressure at times.
"Going into halftime at 10-10, we thought we still had a few shots to fire, and I think our forwards did a really good job in the second half.
"Really happy with the result. It wasn’t the prettiest result, but it’s nice to be back playing test rugby.
"It’s been great to come down here to Dunedin. Always great to play under the roof, and to get a win against a tough England side is a great start."
