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'I'd give Richie the points': State of All Blacks' No 10 battle
In what could be an indication of who the All Blacks see as their first-choice No 10, Richie Mo’unga has been given the nod to start ahead of the more experienced Beauden Barrett in the final game of the Steinlager Series.
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Mo’unga will line up alongside last week’s captain Aaron Smith for the first time this July and while head coach Ian Foster may simply be using the match to further prepare his team for the upcoming Rugby Championship, there are indications that Mo’unga is the preferred first five-eighth for the side – at least for the time being.
Mo’unga was superb throughout this year’s Super Rugby season and had an easy time of things against Tonga two weeks ago while Barrett spent the season representing Suntory Sungoliath in Japan and struggled at times against Fiji last Saturday. Admittedly, the Fijians put up a considerably tougher fight than their Pacific neighbours but Mo’unga now has the opportunity to showcase his talents against those same players that proved so problematic against the All Blacks over the weekend.
“I think [the battle at No 10 is] shaping up just nicely,” Foster said today after revealing his team to play Fiji this weekend. “It’s not like we’re trying to design a big boxing match, one against the other. We’re trying to grow our 10s in terms of understanding how we play.
“I think I’d give Richie the points based on the first two games but to be fair, we always expected that.”
While Barrett hardly had a poor game against Fiji in the first test, he certainly didn’t look quite up to the standard of yesteryear. While the Top League is quickly shooting up in standard, it’s still a step down compared to Super Rugby and that perhaps showed on Saturday evening.
“I thought Beaudie made a lot of really good decisions,” Foster said. “I thought his instincts were maybe just a fraction off – and that’s why we’re keen to keep playing him and giving him more and more time but I was really impressed with a lot of his game management in that game and to me, he’s not far off where we need him to be.”
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Barrett entered the game already sporting two black eyes – thanks in part to taking a few knocks at training from some of his teammates. The big Fijians then quickly laid siege to the 30-year-old, who had to spend 10 minutes off the park aftering taking one particularly hefty blow.
Foster suggested that likely impacted his performance.
“[He] took a couple of big head knocks, face knocks, and I thought it just maybe dampened his desire to go to the line quite as hard as what you know he can and so this is a chance for him to have a little bit of a breather in that space but come on and show us in that second half.”
Ardie Savea is the first to admit that he'd rather be wearing the #AllBlacks No 8 jersey than sitting in the stands – but an extended run in his preferred role of openside flanker could be the making of his career. #NZLvFIJ
?? @TomVinicombehttps://t.co/3FkOnMU6QD
— The XV Rugby (@TheXV) July 15, 2021
While Mo’unga has been given the nod at fly-half and there are other indicators that the side named for this weekend’s game in Hamilton is perhaps the best the All Blacks have to offer right now, Foster refused to confirm as such.
“I’ll leave that to you, really. I said at the start we’re managing players’ workload from a Super Rugby campaign, looking at building our game the way we want it to be and I guess growing combinations, there’s a little bit of that.
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“There’s also a little bit of management with players who have been out for a while, hence the likes of Brodie Retallick – he had a big game last week so it’s a chance to use him differently. We feel a bit the same with Beaudie. There’s a chance to move a few people around.”
Saturday’s match kicks off at 7:05pm NZT.
Comments on RugbyPass
Did the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
1 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
15 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
15 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
15 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
15 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to comments