Richie Mo'unga of the All Blacks celebrates scoring a try during the 2020 Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup match. Photo / Getty Images.
Richie Mo'unga of the All Blacks celebrates scoring a try during the 2020 Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup match. Photo / Getty Images.
OPINION:
We're so used to instant All Black success stories that it's hard to figure Richie Mo'unga out.
It doesn't usually take so long for the extreme talents, or the players who have been earmarked for greatness, to start dominating test opponents as if the step up from Super Rugbywas a little shuffle.
It doesn't normally take three years and 20-odd tests for someone with Mo'unga's bag of tricks to convince the crowd that they have a test match temperament to match the magic.
But hey, everyone is different, and Canterbury's favourite twinkle-toes probably suffered under the final days of Steve Hansen's stewardship, when the old master had lost his best coaching and selection touch.
Australia during the pandemic is the perfect confidence builder for this transitional All Black side, their old-but-new coach Ian Foster and Mo'unga.
It's such a soft launch that at times during Bled Three, it looked like the All Blacks had turned Australia's national stadium into a fun filled bouncy castle.
Dave Rennie's Wallaby side is crap, the only mystery being how they got so close to the All Blacks in Wellington. Many of their players are barely test quality, and they have been prepared in an inferior domestic competition during Covid-19.
Rennie's Rabble started Bledisloe III with a ridiculous yellow card tackle by Filipo Daugunu and apart from a few Jordan Petaia bursts things didn't get any better.
Having falsely promised so much in Bledisloe I, these Aussies may actually be worse than anticipated which is an absolutely dire place to be for a beleaguered Aussie sport desperate to earn more from better ratings.
Richie Mo'unga of the All Blacks celebrates with Beauden Barrett and Hoskins Sotutu of the All Blacks after running in to score his second try. Photo / Getty Images.
What happened in Sydney - where barely half a game of All Black excellence led to a record margin of victory - was always on the cards.
Sydney proved the perfect place for Mo'unga's hit and miss game to knock the latest batch of woeful Wallabies out.
The deeper you go into a series or the Wallaby squad, the worse things get. They survive on a thin veneer and random events, like a re-born James O'Connor turning up.
Take out O'Connor, and it was time for Mo'unga to run amok against disorganised defence and a team with varying degrees of physicality and heart.
The 26-year-old Mo'unga is still a work in progress, as a scrappy All Black second half and his usual bit of lame tackling showed. But it looks as though he's getting somewhere.
And he's worth the wait, worth the downsides, because there's a new Richie in town, even if he's cut from a completely different cloth to the great McCaw.
In the name of doing everything to get your best playmakers on the park, the Mo'unga-Beauden Barrett concept was always the smart play.
Handing Mo'unga the kicking tee, after Jordie Barrett started off as the goalkicker this year, was also a great move. Give Mo'unga command, responsibility and confidence - that's the method.
I just hope Foster's inference that Barrett remains a No. 10 option is the coach ensuring he's not backed into any silly corners.
Richie Mo'unga of the All Blacks dives over to score a try during the 2020 Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup match between the Wallabies and All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.
The All Blacks could also do worse than get the great Dan Carter down to training, to give Mo'unga a few pointers on immaculate defence.
There was little point singling Carter out during his long career. The legendary No. 10 could stop a runaway locomotive with the flick of a train pass. He didn't need to be brave, like little Jonny Wilkinson, because his tackling technique - allied to his wondrous balance - was so smart.
Mo'unga not so.
Teams like South Africa and England will imagine a dart board on Mo'unga's front, with big darts to throw at it. This is still a big All Blacks concern, on the basis that you are only as strong as your weakest link.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I'll take Mo'unga faults and all.
More than anything, Mo'unga is a vote for the romance of rugby. He's worth the price of admission, and he must scare the heck out of opposition defence coaches.
