Richie Mo’unga explains ‘main reason’ for New Zealand homecoming

It’s sad that Mounga has to take a massive pay cut just to play for his country in the World Cup. NZ Rugby have no shame, they do not own the game and have no legal right (that is only in developed countries with laws protecting citizens rights) to prevent players from representing their country just because they work overseas.

Well said CW.

Mo’unga will play a couple of NPC matches for Canterbury in August and then selected for the tour of South Africa in September, regardless of what Mark Robinson said when Mo’unga signed. Robinson is gone in two months and a new CEO will not want to start his tenure getting swept by the Springboks.

Same with Shannon Frizell when re-signs with NZR.

Hopefully Brodie Retallick returns too. Retallick will be 36 at 2027 RWC and I certainly would prefer Retallick coming off the bench the last 20-30 minutes of a test to mark Eben Etzebeth (who will also be 36) than Josh Lord, Sam Darry or even Patrick Tuipulotu.

What ever mate

If Mo’unga starts at 10 and leads the All Blacks to a RWC trophy, is anyone going to care he left immediately afterwards?

Lets be honest, Barrett and McKenzie have had two years to prove they are world class 10s capable of leading the All Blacks. They both have proven to be average test players at this point in their careers.

Barrett was great from 2016-2019, good from 2020-2023, and mediocre since the July series vs England when he played well coming off the bench. Barrett simply refuses to run the ball at the line to create space which was the one skill that made him great early in his career. To compensate, he makes a dozen speculative chip and cross kicks to try and make the big plays he use to make running, often deep in his own end.

McKenzie started 11 tests this RWC cycle and played outstanding in 2 (Argentina II and Ireland in 2024) and has been mediocre the remaining tests. He makes bad decisions and silly skill errors under pressure.

None of Riehana, Kemara, Jacombs, Love, Godfrey, or Millar have started more than 8 matches of Super Rugby at 10 in their careers to date. Its ridiculous to assume they are ready for test rugby without even solidifying the starting 10 jersey at their own SRP franchise. But at least two should be ready to take the reigns as the All Blacks 10 by 2028.

So in the meantime. no matter how much you hate the Crusaders for beating your SPR favorite team for 7 years, Mo’unga gives the All Blacks the best chance of winning the RWC in 2027.

Assume he’ll be off to R360 after RWC 2027.

🤣

Yes pretty obvious indeed. And I suspect he has always been in Razors plans. I’d go so far as to say that Razor may have thought he could have changed eligibility laws by now to have Mounga playing for the ABs now. He was so vocal about it in the early days after his appointment. I wonder if his employers told him to reel his neck in and “shut up about it already”.

All of this really sucks though because it feels like that 10 jersey has been earmarked for him - to the extent that nobody new at 10 has been explored for the ABs. What Razor and Mo’unga wants seems pretty selfish and now, of course, this statement from Mo’unga about “being a part of the World Cup” instead of “for the Jersey” just comes off wrong.

I must be getting old and sentimental - but it’s not very All-Black.

I hope this all works out for the ABs though.