Richie Mo'unga proudly shows off his 2021 winning Crusaders cap. Crusaders v Chiefs 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa Final at Orangetheory Stadium. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Richie Mo'unga proudly shows off his 2021 winning Crusaders cap. Crusaders v Chiefs 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa Final at Orangetheory Stadium. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Opinion:
So, who is the best Super Rugby player ever – Dan Carter, Richie Mo'unga or someone else?
Former All Blacks Jeff Wilson and Mils Muliaina, two men who know a thing or two about breaking down defences and did so in their prime as supreme finishers, believe it's Mo'unga,a young man who turned 27 this week and has played for the Crusaders since 2016 (winning five Super Rugby titles in the process).
They believe he's consistently better (in that competition anyway) than a truly great All Black in Carter who scored 1700 points for the Crusaders in 141 matches (and won three Super titles).
Whatever your view on a discussion prompted by Mo'unga's three tries and eight conversions in the 63-28 demolition of the Reds in Brisbane last weekend, calling him a special talent is approaching an understatement. "Phenomenal," another former All Blacks first-five Andrew Mehrtens said recently.
Richie Mo'unga of the Crusaders scores a try during the round two Super Rugby Trans-Tasman match between the Queensland Reds and the Crusaders. Photo Getty Images.
Maybe the more important question is how Mo'unga got to be so good so quickly and continued to improve.
As a 21-year-old he started every match for the Crusaders in his debut season, one which finished with a quarter-final defeat to the Lions in Johannesburg, but he hasn't failed to navigate his team to a Super championship since and he is becoming increasingly influential in a game in which defences generally hold the upper hand (albeit not by those wearing Australian Super Rugby jerseys recently).
And the origins of Mo'unga's success – beyond genetics, ambition and a fierce desire to continuously improve – are worth keeping in mind because they helped lay the foundation for him to get to where he is today; a young man whose best days are likely to be ahead of him in terms of international success.
What is behind his uncanny ability to unlock cloying defences with a sidestep, his knack for delivering a perfect pass of either hand, or his support play or his vision or his calmness under pressure?
It's his background in touch rugby, a grounding which most kids here have which is why even modern-day Kiwi tight forwards have the ability to catch and deliver difficult passes and see and exploit space.
The importance of touch to New Zealand's rugby success cannot be underestimated or taken for granted in an age when many budding professional players enter the more rigid structure of rugby academies once they leave school.
Richie Mo'unga of the Crusaders celebrates winning the Round 2 Trans-Tasman Super Rugby match between the Queensland Reds and the Canterbury Crusaders. Photo / Getty Images.
Mo'unga's brilliant off-the-cuff play can't be taught and in fact its unpredictability in a modern game increasingly bogged down by formulaic attack and suffocating line speed is why it's so effective.
It was honed in his backyard in Christchurch and at lunchtime on the fields of Riccarton High School and then St Andrew's College once he won a scholarship. In fact, Mo'unga is one of only a few to have played for both the Touch Blacks and All Blacks. Eric Rush and Graeme and Stephen Bachop are others.
Some rugby coaches have a dismissive attitude to touch and it's increasingly popular derivative, Rippa, the winter version played by many primary and intermediate school children in New Zealand. They argue that it teaches poor defensive habits.
Mo'unga is proof that both rugby and touch can be played virtually concurrently at the highest level. The evidence is there in his feet and hands and ability to choose the right option in a split-second. It's also there in his defence – his first try against the Reds came after a copy-book bootlaces tackle which was similar to one deep into the Crusaders' Super Rugby Aotearoa final victory over the Chiefs in Christchurch at the start of the month.
For what it's worth I'd have Carter ahead of Mo'unga at the moment due to his overall influence in Super Rugby but the latter is a burst of colour on an increasingly monochrome game and his background in a non-contact sport is a big reason for it.
