{"id":698229,"date":"2026-05-27T16:47:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698229\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T16:47:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:47:33","slug":"all-blacks-greats-dumbfounded-by-nz-rugby-over-richie-mounga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698229\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks greats ‘dumbfounded’ by NZ Rugby over Richie Mo’unga"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeff Wilson and Mils Muliaina are immensely frustrated that NZ Rugby are refusing to budge on their stance in regards to the returning Japan-based All Blacks.<\/p>\n

Despite Dave Rennie\u2019s desire to see Richie Mo\u2019unga involved as soon as possible, the governing body have put their foot down and insisted that he can only become eligible after featuring in the NPC for Canterbury.<\/p>\n

Currently, October\u2019s Bledisloe Cup encounters are the earliest he can feature for the national team, but most observers, including Wilson and Muliaina, want that changed.<\/p>\n

Ex-All Blacks duo\u2019s message to NZ Rugby<\/p>\n

Both believe that, even if they can\u2019t play initially, it would be far more beneficial for Mo\u2019unga<\/a> and Shannon Frizell, who has also re-signed, to be involved in the All Blacks<\/a> camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to be with the All Blacks and I\u2019m talking from experience here knowing that training with the All Blacks, 15 minutes of 15 on 15 versus multiple NPC games, you will get so much more benefit out of that in terms of preparation,\u201d Wilson said on The Breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sooner that a Shannon Frizell, Richie Mo\u2019unga can get into the environment to prepare themselves for what is going to be coming up for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been contracted to play in big games, it will be so much more beneficial. For me, even before they have to play this \u2018NPC game\u2019 so they\u2019re available, get them into training.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might have to pay them but that\u2019s an investment of them getting back on the field sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of those Thursday trainings, some of those Tuesday trainings, when you go at it, you\u2019re competing for a little bit of an edge, a spot, but for what\u2019s coming up, the All Blacks environment is the perfect place for these guys to get ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir John Kirwan claims Richie Mo\u2019unga will \u2018for sure\u2019 play in South Africa as Springboks legend predicts Rassie Erasmus-esque ploy from Dave Rennie<\/a><\/p>\n

Muliaina was particularly exasperated and can\u2019t understand why NZ Rugby refuse to change something they have complete control over.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut them in there, put them in the environment. What\u2019s the benefit of this rule that they\u2019ve got to play an NPC game? It\u2019s our own rule, it\u2019s not a global rule. Come on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other side of that is they\u2019re going to take guys\u2019 spots [at NPC level], only to what? Tick a box so they can go to South Africa?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they need to be in the environment. You\u2019re doubling down on this and it\u2019s a rule they can actually change. I\u2019m dumbfounded as to why they don\u2019t just roll with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re coming back and they\u2019re going to be in the All Blacks environment, so why do they need to tick this box when it\u2019s our rule?\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks training tougher than Tests<\/p>\n

Ex-All Blacks fly-half Stephen Donald also weighed in and gave some insight into how useful getting into an international environment can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re taking about what Goldie was touching on there, the Tuesday and Thursday training, for someone that used to be on the tackle bags, the level of anxiety you can get by running up against that quality, it\u2019s the most nervous you will get for training,\u201d Donald said.<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilson then added: \u201cThe speeds you\u2019re operating in those training sessions, that\u2019s elite. Those of those were tougher than Test matches I played against some other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Blacks star\u2019s sabbatical turns into nightmare as surgery rules him out of Springboks tour<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Wilson and Mils Muliaina are immensely frustrated that NZ Rugby are refusing to budge on their stance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,1736,44,191966,760,85],"class_list":["post-698229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-richie-mo","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698229","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=698229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}