Dave Rennie teases All Blacks eligibilty update while explaining Mo'unga's recall

When the All Blacks announced Richie Mo’unga as Billy Proctor’s replacement on the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour, head coach Dave Rennie described the playmaker as the “obvious choice”, despite the clear positional discrepancy.

With a fifth No.10 now en route to South Africa, Rennie has an excess of cover in the specialist position, while there remain just three halfbacks in the touring squad and the midfield drops a man as Proctor heads home.

But as Rennie explained ahead of this weekend’s match against the Bulls, Mo’unga’s inclusion won’t come at the expense of the midfield stocks, with cover aplenty in the group already.

“We had a look at it from a midfield point of view; did we have enough cover? And obviously with Rieko (Ioane), we picked him as a winger who could cover centre, and Emoni (Narawa) is versatile, as you saw on the weekend when he played 15, but has played 13 as well. So we feel we’ve got enough cover there,” said the coach.

“By the time Richie arrives, the first three provincial games are gone, and we felt him coming in and immersing himself, getting his head around our structures and the detail within that would be really beneficial. He’s a player who could be good enough to apply pressure for selection at some stage.

“So, the thinking is that he wouldn’t be in the first Test, but he might get game time against the Lions to start pushing a claim then.”

Fixture

Rugby Union Hybrid Friendlies

Bulls

19 - 50

Full-time

New Zealand

All Stats and Data

Rennie said the initial decision to select four game-drivers was made with no plan B for Mo’unga’s inclusion.

“Because we weren’t allowed to bring him in,” he explained. “It was our mindset that who we had here was the group that we were going to use.

“It’s tough on Billy. But we feel Richie’s the logical replacement because of the quality of the player. I’m not sure when he’ll play Test footy for us, but coming in now and spending time in the environment will accelerate that opportunity.”

However, Rennie also revealed that he and the New Zealand Rugby board had already discussed potential scenarios that could make the 56-Test star’s recall possible.

“We’d done a lot of that work prior to coming, that if there was an injury and we were looking for a replacement, that he’s a logical option,” the coach replied when asked whether he needed to put a case forward for Mo’unga’s call-up.

The coach also revealed that he and incoming NZR high performance director, Don Tricker, have discussed the current national eligibility settings, which not only restrict All Blacks selection to players contracted by NZR but also have additional quirks.

As it stands, returning players must represent a New Zealand team they are contracted to before their national eligibility is reinstated, which resulted in Mo’unga being unavailable for initial selection in the RGR squad despite no longer being under any foreign contract.

A hot topic in the Mo’unga saga, Rennie said that updating NZR’s eligibility policy would make future scenarios, like Mo’unga’s, “easy.”

“I think what they wanted was Richie to sign a two-year deal. I guess he committed for 18 months, but if he’d signed for two years, then he would’ve been eligible from the start. I guess all policies will be looked at over the next wee while, but that’s the criteria we’re dealing with.

“Don and I had conversations around what things look like long-term, so there’s a bit of work to be done around the possibility of picking players from overseas. But that’ll be a long process that will need to go through board approval.”