Everyone involved in the negotiations to bring Richie Mo’unga home from Japan early will have learned important lessons throughout a very public but ultimately failed process, and none more so than All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson and New Zealand Rugby.
The first would presumably be that such processes should not be very public.
Few would begrudge Robertson’s honesty in front of the media throughout his first year in charge, not least the media, but some things are probably better left alone.
Who knows what caused those negotiations to fail when Mo’unga’s club Toshiba, with whom he has a three-season contract worth more than $6million, were apparently open to letting him leave a year early.
A lack of a big enough financial offer, presumably, (from NZ Rugby to either or both of Mo’unga and Toshiba), or a lack of flexibility from NZ Rugby (or both)?
There is a school of thought that believes the organisation could have got around its All Blacks’ eligibility rules by re-signing the talented No.10 on a long-term contract with a sabbatical clause – allowing him to wear the black jersey this year and play out his third and final season at the Brave Lupus.
For whatever reason, it hasn’t happened. As revealed by 1News yesterday, unless something significant changes in the next few months, and by all accounts that is extremely unlikely, Mo’unga will not play for the All Blacks again until the middle of next year at the earliest.
But Robertson’s willingness, even compulsion at times, to mention Mo’unga and his contract situation last year would have been unsettling for Mo’unga himself, who became more and more open to a return, but also Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett, the players who started in the pivotal position for the All Blacks in 2024.
That Robertson did not get what he plainly desperately wanted at the end of it all has somehow made it all a little worse for everyone.
On Saturday, July 12, an Australian and New Zealand Invitational XV will take on the British and Irish Lions in Adelaide, and Mo’unga is far more likely to be playing in that fixture than one earlier in the evening in Wellington where the All Blacks play France.
Such is the ability and pulling power of Mo’unga, who won seven titles in seven years at the Crusaders and led Toshiba to a League One championship in his first season with the club, that Rugby Australia will desperately hope he does run on to the Adelaide Oval and plenty of New Zealand fans will, too.
Mo’unga started at No.10 for the Crusaders in a rare failure in 2017 – a defeat against the Lions in Christchurch – and he made his Test debut a year later. His next opportunity to play against the famous touring team won’t come until 2029 and, as he is currently 30 years old, that may be a stretch.
He is said to be disappointed and disgruntled about how things have played out, although content to stay with his family in Tokyo, and the collateral damage may be wider than Harry Plummer’s departure for France after this Super Rugby season.
Plummer, only 26, and a specialist No.10 at the Blues – as opposed to a hybrid first-five/fullback which is where McKenzie and Barrett (and Stephen Perofeta) have found themselves – publicly stated that Mo’unga’s probable return this year was a factor in him signing for Clermont.
Unfortunately for Robertson and NZ Rugby, the fallout may extend to Mo’unga’s Toshiba teammate Shannon Frizell, the now 30-year-old loose forward who left New Zealand at the height of his powers at the same time and who is off contract at the end of this League One season.
It is understood that Mo’unga’s disappointment has become Frizell’s own and that a move home could now be in doubt.
The upshot of it all is that Robertson is back to where he started last year as far as his No. 10 options are concerned and, if anything, Beauden Barrett’s already big influence within the All Blacks has been strengthened.
Barrett, 33, finished the year as the All Blacks’ incumbent first-five - a pecking order which, fitness dependent, is unlikely to change ahead of the first Test against France in Dunedin on July 5.
What Robertson wouldn’t have given to be able to select Mo’unga for that blockbuster of a Test against South Africa at Eden Park on September 6, though.
Actually, after what has just transpired over the past few months, we’ll probably never know, and that is probably as it should be as far as the All Blacks and NZ Rugby are concerned.
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