NZR not budging on Richie Mo'unga's All Blacks eligibilty for South Africa tour

New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is not considering any changes or exemptions to its All Blacks eligibility policy, including the rules that prohibit Richie Mo’unga from being named in any All Blacks squad until after he competes in the coming NPC season.

Mo’unga has signed an 18-month contract to return to Canterbury, the Crusaders and potentially the All Blacks ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup, but under the current laws, he will miss both July’s Nations Championship fixtures and the following Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour against South Africa.

The playmaker will be available for selection in the November Test window and the 2027 Rugby Championship, which is slated to be a full six-round edition of the tournament rather than the three-round edition previously used during Rugby World Cup years.

NZR’s newly appointed CEO, Steve Lancaster, said the eligibility policy that restricts selection to players plying their trade in New Zealand is frequently reviewed and validated, despite the notable volume of players surrendering All Blacks eligibility for offshore contracts.

“Look, it is an issue (players moving offshore). It’s something that we constantly contend with,” Lancaster conceded in an interview with Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB.

“But it’s not a new issue, it’s just a fact of life in professional sport that players get to a point in their career where they either want to experience a new culture or a new competition or a new environment, and they have the opportunity to earn a significant amount of money doing that. So that’s just the fact of life in our sport, and not something that’s ever going to stop or change. 

“In terms of our approach to eligibility, we’re very clear and have a strong amount of belief in our policy for selection to the All Blacks, which is that we want our best talent in New Zealand playing in our competitions, are visible and accessible to our rugby public, and we believe that that provides the strongest basis to field a competitive and winning All Blacks team.

“So no, we’re not contemplating any changes to that policy. We continually look at it, we continually scan the horizon and the context. But it continues to bring us back to the fact that the policy that we have is fit for purpose, and it works for us. 

“And interestingly, if you look around the world, a number of the other leading rugby nations are now actually tightening their own eligibility policies so that there is less scope for players to be selected from offshore teams.”

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In the case of Mo’unga, who has worn the starting black No.10 jersey at each of the last two Rugby World Cups, Lancaster said no exemption has been pursued.

“No, we haven’t asked the board to relax that policy around Richie… I think you’ve also got to think about other players that are in the system, right? So we’ve obviously got some great players in the same position; world-class players, and a number of those have committed to stay in New Zealand and play in New Zealand on the basis of that policy. So we’ve just got to think about the implications of the policy and of relaxing the policy at any point in time,” Lancaster said.

Some fans and pundits had suggested that the personnel changes within New Zealand Rugby, including the appointment of a new All Blacks head coach, Dave Rennie, may have shifted the needle or changed the attitude towards selection criteria. Rennie himself name-dropped ex-All Black Brodie Retallick, who he currently coaches in Japan, as a potential candidate for an exemption due to his current form.

But while Lancaster revealed Rennie had expressed his desire to have Mo’unga available for selection prior to his NPC campaign, he also revealed the coach stopped short of requesting a rethink on the eligibility criteria.

“No, he hasn’t asked us to,” Lancaster added. “We’ve had a lot of live conversations with Dave over the last month about the eligibility policy. We’ve certainly talked about Richie, and Dave’s very clear: He would like Richie to be available for selection, because his job is ultimately to win the World Cup next year, and he wants the best talent available to the All Blacks. And that’s a really healthy tension for us to have, where we’ve got a coach who rightly has a focus on winning today and tomorrow, and then we’ve got ourselves as the administrators of the game, who have to have a systems lens in a medium to long-term lens on what’s best for the game.”

Mo’unga is joined by Shannon Frizell, a returning player who must earn his eligibility on the field, in a situation that echoes Leicester Fainga’anuku’s last year. The Crusaders’ hybrid returned from a two-year stint with Toulon in France and went straight back into an NPC campaign with Tasman.

The 26-year-old only ended up playing five games for the Mako, though, as an injury to Timoci Tavatavanawai presented an opportunity to exploit something of a loophole in the eligibility laws, and Fainga’anuku rejoined the All Blacks environment, going on to start on the left wing in the final game of the Rugby Championship.

Lancaster says the same opportunity could, theoretically, come Mo’unga’s way.

“Potentially, he could (be an injury replacement) because the policy is really clear around players playing in New Zealand, having played in the preceding competition to be eligible for selection,” he explained.

“So, as I said, the board have considered and confirmed the policy stands as it is, which we’re very comfortable with, and that means that Richie will not be named in the initial squads for either the July Series or Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry. But once Rich is back in New Zealand and playing, and if we do have injuries, then potentially he could be eligible.”