{"id":56711,"date":"2025-08-10T02:28:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T02:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56711\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T02:28:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T02:28:06","slug":"former-teammate-weighs-in-on-mounga-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56711\/","title":{"rendered":"Former teammate weighs in on Mo\u2019unga return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the big news this week that Richie Mo\u2019unga is returning to New Zealand<\/a> in 2026, many fans and pundits have chimed in with their opinion about his move.<\/p>\n

Kubota Spears halfback Bryn Hall<\/a> was one of them, who played with the All Black first-five for the Crusaders<\/a> in Super Rugby Pacific.<\/p>\n

Hall, now plying his trade in Japan<\/a> while doing some analysis for Sky Sport, is excited to see Mo\u2019unga back in a black jersey, after ripping it up in Japan for the Toshiba Brave Lupus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of talk about it since Razor got the job in terms of trying to get Richie Mo\u2019unga<\/a> back. There\u2019s a lot of chat about whether they could get him out of the contract or not?<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah, obviously his requirements with Toshiba, anytime you can get a play of his calibre, I can tell you myself the way he\u2019s been playing the last two and a half years over in Japan, coming back to the international stage won\u2019t be a big problem for him,\u201d Hall said on the DSPN Podcast with Martin Devlin.<\/p>\n

Hall also adds that Mo\u2019unga\u2019s relationship with All Blacks<\/a> coach Scott Robertson<\/a> will be crucial going forward, as the two won a number of titles together in Christchurch over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo like I said, he\u2019s got an affiliation with Razor, a lot of their coaching group probably have unfinished business in terms of their black jersey with the World Cup in the near distance in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s a great get for New Zealand Rugby to be able to bring back a guy of his experience for their number 10
position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devlin asked Hall about how he thinks other players will react to Mo\u2019unga coming back to New Zealand, especially the ones who are in the playmaking positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook I think any human, and if you\u2019re talking in particular here around the No.10 position, it\u2019s a bit different, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you have the ambition that you want to have the keys to the to the All Blacks and you\u2019ve always kind of had that, but there\u2019s always been chats around Richie coming back in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think competitors themselves it\u2019s like, cool, if he\u2019s going to come back, that\u2019s the kind of position that you\u2019re in, you\u2019re not warranted a Test jersey, you play with the currency that you are playing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall explains that Mo\u2019unga\u2019s performances in Japan are at a high level, but another campaign for Damian McKenzie<\/a> and Beauden Barrett<\/a> as the game drivers will give them a good shot at the jersey going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s (Mo\u2019unga) still going to go do another year in Japan, so talking more so in terms of Beauden and McKenzie, you\u2019ve got the opportunity to have another campaign, to be able to play the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not forget, even though he is playing some really good really good football in Japan, I\u2019ve seen him firsthand, he took a bloody final away from from us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a bit of time to stake their claim before Richie does come back here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the big news this week that Richie Mo\u2019unga is returning to New Zealand in 2026, many fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-56711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}