McKenzie looking for inspiration from Norton-Knight

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New South Wales Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie says he hopes the return of Sam Norton-Knight for tonight's Super 14 rugby game against the Cheetahs in Sydney will help the team play a more attacking game.

Norton-Knight will start at full-back for the first time this season after injuring his thigh in preseason.

McKenzie says a good performance tonight will answer critics who claim his team plays boring rugby.

"I don't have any conservative elements of 'we're not going to run the ball' because if you watch us train, we spend a lot of time practising all that," he said.

"So that will come out at some point when we get the right mix and I think hopefully this weekend there's a better mix.

"There's another ball player who'll enable us to play the game a bit differently, with a bit more width and we'll see how we go."

McKenzie says prop Benn Robinson deserves his chance to play after being selected in the 22 at the expense of Sekope Kepu.

McKenzie says Robinson earned his place through good performances for the Junior Waratahs.

"He's training and playing with a lot of energy at the moment, he's a Wallaby prop so I don't have a problem bringing him back in," he said.

"He'll play against Van der Linde who's obviously the Springbok tighthead so that'll be a good contest.

"The scrum's going to be important but we feel like we've got a bunch of good props and we need to keep them on edge and keep them playing their best football."