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Why the All Blacks would have concerns with Richie Mo'unga

Shaun Stevenson of the Chiefs charges over the tryline to score during the Super Rugby Pacific Final match between Chiefs and Crusaders at FMG Stadium Waikato, on June 24, 2023, in Hamilton, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Departing Crusaders five-eighth Richie Mo’unga confirmed his status as an all-time great with his seventh title in a champion Crusaders team under Scott Robertson.

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After multiple seasons as the best player in the competition, his 2023 season was not his best vintage, but there were flashes of brilliance down the stretch as the Crusaders timed the run perfectly.

As a Crusader, Mo’unga has achieved more than Dan Carter in red and black. Although Carter still holds many individual point scoring records, the All Black great won three titles and lost four finals.

Carter’s last title was in 2008, during the back end of the career there were challenging seasons due to injuries and form, while Mo’unga has been critical each and every year in Robertson’s side in pulling off seven championships in a row.

Richie Mo’unga now lays claim to the greatest Super Rugby player in the competition’s history.

The obvious difference between the two 10s is Carter’s All Black career stands miles above where Mo’unga’s legacy in black sits.

It is easy to sit back and assume that Mo’unga and many of his teammates now command their selections in Foster’s All Black side.

There is however, one glaring and concerning aspect of Mo’unga’s performance in the final that has not been addressed that presents a troubling conundrum should it resurface at crunch time.

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We know Mo’unga’s attacking game is world class. He is a clutch goal kicker and his game management is superior to Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie, proven once again in the Super Rugby Pacific final.

But the glaring flaw and unignorable elephant in the room is the defence. The Crusaders first five roamed the backfield on Saturday night for the most part and finished with three tackles from seven attempts.

Shaun Stevenson blew right past him for the Chiefs’ first try after shoddy rush defence from Braydon Ennor and Chay Fihaki allowed the Chiefs fullback to hit the gap.

Stevenson had zero doubts about rounding Mo’unga in cover defence instead of linking with his support either side. He was comfortably right.

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The Chiefs’ scrum play early in the second half that led to a try to Emoni Narawa was designed to prey on Mo’unga.

Assigned one-on-one with McKenzie, the Chiefs’ No 10 drew his Crusader rival into light contact with a wider pass to centre Alex Nankivell, which was enough to create the yawning gap outside, by pulling Ennor further away from his inside man.

The out-ball, in-ball play for Stevenson inside Nankivell was perfectly timed to expose the Mo’unga-Ennor channel. France and Ireland take note if these two are playing together in black. Stevenson’s perfectly threaded pass to Narawa finished the strike move.

No less than four Crusader All Blacks failed to make a tackle as the play design and pass timing eluded them all.

Credit is due to the Chiefs backline, but France or Ireland are capable of the same level of play, if not better.

Mo’unga was saved by O’Keeffe’s officiating team on the deliberately overthrown lineout play which saw McKenzie blast up the seam from an offside position.

Despite the offside, Narawa made light work of the situation with the Crusaders’ 10 back-pedalling all ends up before being pushed out the way by the Chiefs’ right winger.

Ian Foster called out Stevenson’s defence as a work-on for his initial non-selection in the All Blacks squad. By the same logic then he must have massive issues with Mo’unga and whether to select him for the Test arena.

The All Black No 10 has to defend in the backfield, the same as a fullback like Stevenson would. That’s how the All Blacks’ defensive system works.

If Mo’unga is the last line of defence and he produces three from seven in a World Cup quarter-final, it is safe to say they will be on the next plane home from Paris.

As a 10, the Crusaders’ dynamo ticks all the boxes and has produced countless genius plays on attack. His Super Rugby career is unrivalled.

But it’s this one chink in the armour that will be targetted in a few months time. England already did so in 2019.

The All Blacks cannot hide him and Mo’unga can’t hide from the challenge ahead. In the toughest Tests there are no places to hide as the great teams will find every weakness.

His game-saving try on Blues’ No 8 Hoskins Sotutu earlier in the season showed that he can produce.

For the All Blacks’ sake he must.

 

 

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Comments

18 Comments
J
Joe 490 days ago

What a load of rubbish. Time and time again Mounga has shown his amazing defensive efforts. Mounga and Jordan patrol the backfield for the Crusaders, same as Mckenzie and Stevenson for the Chiefs and Perofeta and Barrett for the Blues this is nothing new or about 'hiding' players in the backfield it's a tactic used by many teams around the world.

And how was the Ennor-mounga defensive exposed when he was in the backfield?

M
Mike 495 days ago

I'm just so glad that Fossie's still AB coach and not Razor yet, as a Saffa thinking about WC. 🙂

R
Rob 495 days ago

Does the Australian rugby league team play like the Storm/Queensland?
American All stars struggle to win🥇🥇 at the Olympics....try researching other provincial teams and you will surprising find they are just as good or better than their national team.

S
Shayne 495 days ago

Yeah right, and foster and kane will win world cup, me thinks the north islanders are delusional 🙄

R
Ruby 496 days ago

Richie's style of play doesn't translate to test Rugby either, his attacking kicks that work great in Super Rugby are just wasted possession against test teams that are better at covering them.

I
Isaac 496 days ago

Dmack out played mounga in the final the fuck you on about the chiefs ripped the crusaders apart and only won because of the ref and the silly pens and cards that's the only reason why if you look at the stat's it mostly goes chiefs way

m
mikejjules 496 days ago

Not just mo'unga. Fa'aiganuku, Jordan, Clarke.... It's either can't tackle or can't understand their defensive lines

I
Ian 496 days ago

Carter's AB record is better than Mo'unga's, well not really surprising, up until this RWC cycle Barrett was considered number one and even when in the 10 jersey he was pushed into an uncomfortable pairing with Barrett in 12, which didn't work.
Then through the past 3 and a half years Foster has failed to get the best out of any AB, and until Jordie Barrett was given the 12 jersey during the 22 rugby championship Mo'unga still didn't have a consistent partner with whom he looked comfortable.
I believe that if Robertson had been coach of the ABs during this cycle we would have seen a better version of Mo'unga in black, and the comparison to Carter would be far closer.

H
HardYakka 496 days ago

Yes much like Quade Cooper (although he was a real turnstile back in the day) they hide Richie Mac in the backfield on D, which other teams exploit and is part of the reason why he has not had much of a test career. He aint too bad but compare that with midget D Mac who is even smaller but thumping loose forwards at times (which seems impossible until you see him take it to guys like Christie? In the final). Or Carter, or the tiny Cruden who were master chop tacklers. Defence wins you test matches unlike super rugby or NPC.

e
ed 496 days ago

Sounds like a whinging chief supporter to me

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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