Dave Rennie has confirmed that Richie Mo’unga will miss both Bledisloe Cup Test matches against Australia due to injury.
The 32-year-old started the final Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test match against the Springboks and was set to feature again versus the Wallabies following the setback to Ruben Love, who will miss the remainder of the international season.
Double injury blow
Prior to the All Blacks team being named on Thursday, New Zealand Rugby confirmed that Mo’unga and Fehi Fineanganofo would miss the opening Bledisloe Cup clash against Australia at Eden Park due to injury.
“Fineanganofo sustained a concussion and a hamstring strain in the Bay of Plenty match against North Harbour in the final round of the NPC regular season,” the statement read.
“While he passed the original head injury assessment (HIA) during the game, he has failed subsequent assessments, meaning he will have a mandatory 12-day stand-down period. Scan results have also confirmed an upper hamstring injury. Canterbury and Crusaders back Chay Fihaki will join the squad as an injury replacement.
“First five-eighth Richie Mo’unga sustained a calf injury during Tuesday’s training and scans have revealed a tear. His return to play is yet to be determined and will be dependent on his functional progression over the coming weeks.
“No decision has yet been made on whether an injury replacement will be brought in for Mo’unga.”
Richie Mo’unga update
Speaking to reporters after naming his team to face the Wallabies in Auckland, Rennie confirmed that Mo’unga had initially been named in the starting XV on Monday.
However, he sustained the calf injury in training on Tuesday, which has ruled him out of both meetings with Australia. That setback has led to the selection of Damian McKenzie at fly-half, who has started every Test for New Zealand at full-back this year, with Beauden Barrett taking over in the number 15 jumper.
“We named Richie to the squad on Monday, and he got injured on Tuesday, which is disappointing for him and disappointing for the group,” Rennie said, explaining the selections.
“Damian has trained a lot there for us and Beauden has predominantly trained at 15 when we were in South Africa.
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“Beauden started against the Lions and the Bulls at 15; both those players are interchangeable. They both spend a lot of time in the back field. The way we play, having a 15 who is a real playmaker suits, so having both those guys – we could have played them the other way around, but like I said they both end up in playmaker roles and they will both end up in the back field.”
He added: “He won’t be available next week either, and then we’ll assess; it’s a little tweak in his calf.”
Barrett and Frizell returns
Elsewhere, Scott Barrett and Shannon Frizell have been included in the matchday 23 for the first time this year, with the former named in the second-row whilst the latter has been named on the bench for his first appearance since the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.
“It’s probably been the hardest side we’ve had to pick. So between Ted [Sir Graham Henry], me and Barnesy [Neil Barnes], we have generally been pretty aligned,” Rennie said.
“We had to have three selection meetings to nail this and an example would be if you play Tupou at six versus lock; that affects a number of people.
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“Shannon has been good; it was important that he got a lot of footy in. We’re happy that he played another 80 minutes last Saturday and I think everyone’s seen he’s had a massive impact with the ball; defensively, he’s been good. He’s got post-tackle presence. I think he’s still getting up to speed conditioning-wise, and that’s why we felt it was probably better to bring him off the bench, with Scooter starting.
“We were thinking that rather than having a couple of guys who hadn’t played much footy or hadn’t played for us at all this year, that sort of worked a bit better.”