'He's just a freak': Mo'unga on All Blacks' try-scoring phenom

All Blacks flyhalf Richie Mo’unga is “just glad that it’s over” after an immense tussle with recent rivals Ireland, also heaping praise on his young Crusaders teammate, the try-scoring phenom Will Jordan.

The pair linked up to score New Zealand’s opening try of the second half, a crisp and beautifully executed run off an All Blacks lineout that saw Mo’unga split the gap between reigning World Player of the Year Josh van der Flier and hooker Dan Sheehan.

Collecting the ball just five meters out of his own 22, Mo’unga burst into the play, throwing a subtle dummy inside and keeping the ball in two hands to cause hesitation from the Irish defence. Having run 50 meters, the playmaker drew in the final defender and put Jordan away in the corner.

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The winger’s support line was run to perfection. Following the match, Mo’unga credited Jordan’s reputation as a constant threat as the key to his linebreak.

“We practised that throughout the week,” he told the press in Paris. “The move wasn’t actually made for me, it was made for Will Jordan on the inside and I saw the two defenders hold on him because obviously, he’s a big threat at the line.

“I was able to get through, and thank God it happened that way because I wouldn’t have had the wheels to finish that thing off. Luckily I gave it away to the speed, which was a good way to finish, and it became pretty crucial in the end.”

While history will reflect the decision as poor, given the support inside the hooker, it’s hard to blame Sheehan for hesitating given Jordan’s remarkable try-scoring record. The 25-year-old is averaging just shy of a try per game in his three-year All Blacks career.

Having played alongside the speedster in Super Rugby Pacific, Mo’unga has had plenty of time to build chemistry with Jordan and knows first-hand the danger his clubmate poses.

“He’s just a freak. You know the charisma that he has, just the presence. There will be a number of players like him in teams where you just know he has it.

“What people don’t usually see is his ability to understand the game of rugby. You see it in games where he pops up at the right time. His anticipation is probably his biggest strength, that and his speed. He is able to read plays ahead and see where the ball is going to get to. And he sniffs out any opportunity.

“He has a huge, huge future.”

Now just two games away from a fourth Rugby World Cup win, the All Blacks have avenged their Steinlager Series loss of 2022 and eliminated the world’s number-one ranked team from the tournament.

It’s a mammoth effort that Mo’unga admits emptied the tank.

“I am just glad that it’s over and we got the job done.

“To play a quarter-final in the Rugby World Cup is not only demanding physically, mentally it takes its toll.

“You are building up your whole week and putting everything into 80 minutes. And rugby is pretty brutal, it doesn’t always go your way. We were put under a whole lot of pressure in that game and at the end, in the dying minutes, we were able to hang tough with our defence.

“For us to achieve that was just awesome because of many reasons, one being no one really gave us a chance. We expected that, we played Ireland, the best in the world, and we knew we didn’t have to be the best in the world, we just had to be the best on the day.

“That was a huge thing for us leading into this game. We wanted to pour everything into this game and really stamp our mark into this one, which we did tonight, which is cool.”