'Not part of our DNA': Mo'unga delivers honest assessment of All Blacks attack

All Blacks first-five Richie Mo’unga has outlined what went wrong for his side at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, after failing to break down the resolute, determined, and passionate Welsh defensive line.

The All Blacks, who made ten changes going into this weekend’s contest with Wales, forced the home side to make tackle after tackle, and astonishingly, couldn’t get the ball over the line in the second half.

Dave Rennie admitted his side was “one-dimensional” in attack and lacked the finishing ability to take the countless number of opportunities they had.

All Blacks first-five Richie Mo’unga had a torrid outing in his return to the starting lineup, while fullback and captain Beauden Barrett also struggled to get into the game.

Mo’unga, whose last start was against the Springboks in Baltimore, looked out of touch as the All Blacks were made to pay for their inaccuracies.

“Yeah, we just weren’t clinical, accurate enough,” Mo’unga told reporters in Cardiff.

“Definitely had our chances and opportunities, but a few offloads that didn’t quite go to hand. Probably a little bit reckless and a bit of indiscipline let them sort of have momentum, and then as soon as they got in our 22, it was just pretty hard to stop them.

“We had a lot of ball at the back end of that second half. I think they made almost three times as many tackles.

The Crusaders playmaker suggested maybe they could have looked at other options to score in that second half, where much of the opportunities came from close to the ruck.

“Yeah, it was difficult [to get over the line]. I don’t know how many times we got held up, but you know, it felt like we were so close, and had we got one more pass away, maybe we could have walked in a different way.

“But just credit to, as Peter said, this Wales side across the defence, pretty desperate, and we could sense that we just weren’t good enough to execute tonight.

“I think the start didn’t help us with the way the game started. We put ourselves under a lot of pressure with a few 50-50s, and needed to be a bit calmer in the way we sort of exited our half.

“Like any good Wales side, especially a desperate one that’s really passionate tonight, they executed when they got the turnovers.”

When asked if the 58-Test playmaker felt like the team “forced it” during the first half, Mo’unga questioned his side’s judgement.

“I don’t know if it was a psyche; maybe the individual saw something that made them make that decision, and it’s the sort of license that we all have as players, and we’ll have to review that and see if it was a smart decision or not, or if it was mainly a guess that they’re going off.

“Those are the things that are not part of our DNA [guessing]. And if we didn’t see the picture, then we would have carried and tried to get out of our half. Those are the lessons we learned.”