All Blacks v Argentina Pumas - Rugby Championship: The moment that settled the All Blacks No 10 debate

OPINION:

It’s perhaps frustrating, but it’s certainly not ironic that Richie Mo’unga has at last found unwavering confidence in himself and what he can do for the All Blacks now that he only has a few months of his test career left.

It’s arguably the fact that he’s made his decision to leave New Zealand after the World Cup that has given him the clarity and certainty that has been missing at times since he won his first cap in 2018.

There’s a sense, now that he’s steered the Crusaders to a seventh consecutive Super Rugby title and committed his future to Japan, that he’s made peace with himself, what he’s achieved and who he is.

His performance in the Super Rugby Pacific final was energised and eager, his hunger to win always visible. But so too was he calm and composed, and Mo’unga looks now to have perfected the art possessed by only the best first fives, where they can play at a hundred miles an hour yet look like they are effortless and never rushed.

No doubt, what’s helped too is that he’s killed stone dead any media and public debate about his right to wear the All Blacks No 10 jersey.

A few years ago, there was no better way to speed up a slow news day than to pontificate on the play-making merits of Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett and paint the whole business of selecting the All Blacks first five as an impossible choice.

By 2021, New Zealand’s rugby public mostly disagreed that the choice was impossible.

Mo’unga had his admirers and was respected for what he had done with the Crusaders, but the majority vote went to Barrett, who was seen back then as the more consistent and more likely to play with the authority the All Blacks needed from their general.

No one imagined things would swing as far as they have, and that with the All Blacks just days away from kicking off their 2023 campaign, there is barely even a flicker of debate when the question of Mo’unga or Barrett is posed.

Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo'unga run through drills during an All Blacks training session. Photo / Getty Images

Mo’unga has so obviously proven himself in the role, both with New Zealand in the back half of last year and with the Crusaders since 2017, that it’s even reached the point where the question doesn’t need to be asked.

Previously, when there were doubts about Mo’unga, they were predominantly driven by concerns he was mentally volatile on the big occasions.

It wasn’t that he would melt down in big games, more that he would disappear and not want to take ownership of the occasion.

There was some truth to the theory that he came into a test side in 2018 that had become too reliant on Barrett doing all the play-making and decision-making, and that perhaps Mo’unga had become used to his senior colleague taking responsibility in those pressure moments.

But whatever was holding Mo’unga back, it ended in Johannesburg last year when he was the one who stayed in the fight for 80 minutes and dug the All Blacks out of the hole they were in to secure victory.

He hasn’t looked back since that game at Ellis Park and while he doesn’t say as much, the secret to his breakthrough has been a realisation that test rugby isn’t the complicated beast it often appears to be, and that doing the simple things well can bring enormous rewards.

“We complicate footy sometimes,” he said. “There are a few parts of the game that, if you keep getting them right, it just makes things easier - things like ruck speed, momentum in the collisions, these are the small things All Blacks keep needing to do well at.”

Keeping it simple, he revealed, is not only his personal mantra, but also the theme the team will be employing in their first game of the year.

“It being our first test, we have a simple focus,” he said. “Things we know that should be in our DNA in terms of our footy. Our carry height, running with the ball at the ruck, little things that we pride ourselves on are a really good focus to have in your first test.

“That will set the game up well. When I understand a bit more about what my role will be, I’m hoping to get an opportunity and [am] keen to play test match footy.”

That he doesn’t yet know what role he will be playing hints that selection for the opening Rugby Championship test against the Pumas may not necessarily reflect the way the selectors see their pecking order.

It’s possible, given his heavy workload for the Crusaders and the emotional investment he made in the final, that Mo’unga may not be given a starting role in Argentina.

But with the team then facing the Springboks in Auckland just six days later, Mo’unga will almost certainly be installed in the No 10 jersey for that game, where he will be asked to play with the sort of clarity and confidence that are fast becoming to define him.

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