There simply couldn’t be a better time for Richie Mo’unga to prove he has the mental fortitude, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
By Gregor Paul in South Africa
Last November, Richie Mo’unga didn’t manage to be the man the All Blacks needed in a crisis.
His big shot came in the last test of the year
in Paris, where – with Beauden Barrett – he was handed the No 10 jersey against France and asked to produce the play-making magic that had seen him light up Super Rugby for the fifth successive year.
The All Blacks needed a win to bring their season to a respectable close and to dampen the sense of uncertainty that was developing about their attack game.
They needed a creative hero, a tactical mastermind to produce the definitive blueprint of what the All Blacks were trying to do with the ball.
And as much as the All Blacks needed to provide themselves, so too did Mo’unga. His talent has never been in question.
He’s got every trick in the book and other than his defence, where he is prone to slipping off the odd tackle, he has the game to be a long-term All Black.
A great All Black even, except that for whatever reason – lack of opportunity perhaps – he’d never been able to produce his Super Rugby form in the test arena.
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There were moments, maybe the odd game even where he looked more like his Super Rugby self, but there was no consistency – no sense of Mo’unga having come to terms with what it takes to play well at the highest level.
There were maybe signs it was starting to happen for him earlier in 2021 when he was the preferred No 10 and ran Australia ragged in successive weekends at Eden Park.
Covid proved to be a cruel blow, however, as just as he was starting to build a little momentum, his second child came along and by the time he was able to get into Australia for the Rugby Championship and serve his mandatory quarantine, Barrett had grabbed back the No 10 jersey.
Paris was Mo’unga’s single biggest opportunity to win back his place.
But cometh the hour, there was no sign of the man. A feverish crowd, ecstatic to be back at Stade de France without Covid enforced restrictions, helped sweep a young and dynamic French team to a memorable victory.
It was a win built on the calm, poise and occasional brilliance of their young No 10, Romain Ntamack and his ability to inject himself into the game, to be the central figure and own the big moments, highlighted that his All Blacks opposite didn’ Don’t play badly so much, as simply not really play at all.
Of all the things that went wrong in Paris that night, nothing was more disappointing than Mo’unga’s lack of desire or ability to impose himself.
If he had tried and failed, so be it, but it was as if he hid a little bit, got stage fright and didn’t want to be cast as the central figure in a story that wasn’t a happy one for the All Black’s.
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History, it would seem, is about to repeat in one sense. Barrett, having been tipped upside down in a horror challenge in Mbombela, is unlikely to play this week and never in the All Blacks modern history have they needed to win more than they do now.
And if Paris was a cauldron, goodness knows how to describe what Ellis Park will be on Saturday, with 60,000 South Africans baying for blood now that they can sense they are facing an All Blacks side that may be in its last throes before a radical reset .
There simply couldn’t be a better time for Mo’unga to prove he has the mental strength for the white-hot intensity of world rugby’s toughest encounter.
Whether he plays brilliantly or terribly probably doesn’t matter. What he does, is that he pushes himself to be on the ball, that he wants to take responsibility for igniting an attack game that has, for most of this year, been more ZX81 than MacBookPro.
The ideal scenario for him and the All Blacks is that he not only shows an appetite to be in the thick of the big moments, but he also wins a few.
That he shines a little and plays with the some of the innovation and intuition that so readily comes when he’s with the Crusaders.
The benefit of that, would be to finally ignite a real battle between him and Barrett for the No 10 role.
In the first half of last year, the head-to-head between these two was hyped to high heaven, but nothing eventuated and maybe the saddest thing about the demise of the All Blacks is that these two great players haven’t managed to drive each other to higher levels.
Mo’unga, if he starts at Ellis Park, will have a chance to end the Phoney War and see if he and Barrett can start forcing each other to deliver their best.
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