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Opinion

Richie Mo’unga: Fantastic flyhalf or Beauden Barrett imitation?

Roar Guru
4th October, 2020
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Roar Guru
4th October, 2020
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Richie Mo’unga certainly knows something about being undermined.

Many feel that Beauden Barrett is a true flyhalf for the All Blacks and Mo’unga had his time in the World Cup and that’s all there is to his run-on duties.

“BB is a far better general,” said one Roarer.

Meanwhile, others say he’s just a poor imitation of Beauden Barrett who needs the forward pack dominance in order to perform. This was the very reason that Steve Hansen consistently refused to start Mo’unga despite his brilliant performances in the Super Rugby.

This was the same thing being echoed in The Roar. “Mo’unga is a poor imitation that requires a dominant forward pack. Completely showed up in Rugby World Cup semi,” said another Roarer.

But there is also some backing for Mo’unga.

“Personally I see Mo’unga as a much more rounded No. 10 than Barrett. He has a far better kicking and distributing game and he brings his outside backs into the game more than Barrett.

“Barrett is just a freak of nature, and he is electric and hitting a hole and taking the ball to the line, while his kicking and distribution is good, albeit not great,” another Roarer said.

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With such a sharp contrast of views on the flyhalf, what is he really: a brilliant playmaking genius or just a flyhalf dependent on forward-pack dominance to play well?

Richie Mo'unga of the All Blacks

Richie Mo’unga (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

Firstly, the main bad game he had was against England, in which the English pack demolished the All Black scrum and dominated in pretty much all aspects. Barrett seemed to have a better game that match, with some breaks and edge passes here and there but not really much to account for.

Barrett could not have been said to have had a good game that match, for he had thrown an intercepted pass or two.

Why had Barrett seemingly done better? I think that it was because he was at fullback, a position with more space and thus he had more chances to run and pass the ball.

Here is one very prominent example of how they allowed Barrett to get more space to do what he does.

A very standard set-piece attack of All Blacks rugby comes to mind here.

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Firstly, they put up a typical pod of forwards, then a pass back to a distributor to bridge the play to the open backs. This distributor is often Beauden Barrett, but in this case it’s Scott Barrett, who just puts away a pass through Sevu Reece, the dummy runner, to Mo’unga, who forms a flat passing bridge with Barrett, who is just on his left shoulder.

Here we have a first pod of forwards, bridge and then second pod of primary playmakers (Richie and Beauden) and then George Bridge open out towards the touchline. By conserving Barrett from distribution the All Blacks can bring one more playmaker to the edge to create more space with the draw and pass, a tactic South Africa have also used with alterations through Handre Pollard and Willie le Roux.

Mo’unga does a good no-look pass to Barrett, committing and putting it away without a sideways glance. This allows Barrett to get a better one on Anthony Watson, getting a good draw and pass to put George Bridge away down the wing. But this time Bridge does not get away down the wing and Watson manages to drift across and kill the attack.

In this bit of play Barrett seems to have a bigger hand. New Zealand conserved Barrett by not wasting him on distributory duties, instead having a forward to execute that to put Beauden wider out with Mo’unga, forming a playmaking pod bridge to get the ball away to the winger.

Though the play does not come off, Mo’unga played an equal part in it with the no-look pass.

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Meanwhile, both playmakers had made valiant efforts to breach the defence using attacks, but both their efforts were in vain.

How about this one: a phenomenal cross-kick by Mo’unga away down the pitch out wide to Anton Lienert-Brown – this move worked brilliantly against South Africa in the first game, but the physical mismatch between Sevu Reece and Makazole Mapimpi was a key factor. Against most teams this would have worked, but in this case Johnny May killed the play, hitting Lienert-Brown hard and into touch.

Many opportunities had been created by both playmakers on that day, it’s just that the English defence was so good that most were closed down. The ones that worked were never converted into points.

This was the very match that caused great criticism, and though he missed two tackles, he still made the other seven. So if you want to use that game, in which he made play but had his opportunities shut down, it is not enough to disparage all his other moments of brilliance.

Here are some moments of his attacking brilliance. Some plays on the edge from Australia in the Rugby Championship, then the fumble and the awry pass, dropping with a bounce before Mo’unga snapped it up and raced to the line. This is one aspect of Barrett’s game – pace – and Mo’unga has it in plenty as well.

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How about this one: it’s not a play from the scrum and you can’t disparage the dependency on forward strength. From the kick-off Mo’unga was doing a grubber – I have never seen this before – and then raced after it.

The bouncing grubber clears the minimum kick-off distance, Mo’unga regathered with a slider and a get-up, busting the tackle of – guess who? Beauden Barrett. This got the Crusaders well into the Blues 22, and this is a big statement. Mo’unga shows up Beauden Barrett.

His cross-kicks have been a key factor in the Crusaders’ success.

He is also good at passing. Against Ireland off the scrum we had a flat pass from Mo’unga to Jack Goodhue on the edge, who released Reece, who put in a final pass to Bridge to score.

Mo’unga iconically chased down on Cheslin Kolbe. A great linebreak, ripping through many players, it became a one on one between Kolbe and Mo’unga, and Mo’unga got to Kolbe and slid to the ankles, sliding him out to touch.

In conclusion, Mo’unga is a great player in his own right, not a mere poor Beauden Barrett imitation, as he has shown with the opportunities he created against England. He is a playmaker and all-rounder. He well deserves the All Blacks No. 10 jersey.

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