{"id":436750,"date":"2026-05-20T13:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436750\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:59:10","slug":"sir-john-kirwan-richie-mounga-will-for-sure-face-the-springboks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436750\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir John Kirwan: Richie Mo’unga will ‘for sure’ face the Springboks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Sir John Kirwan is absolutely certain that Richie Mo\u2019unga will feature for the All Blacks in South Africa despite NZ Rugby\u2019s firm stance.<\/p>\n

The fly-half is set to return to New Zealand following the conclusion of Japan Rugby League One but, in accordance with NZR\u2019s laws, he will not be eligible until later in the year.<\/p>\n

Mo\u2019unga\u2019s campaign with Toshiba Brave Lupus will finish in early June at the very latest, well before the start of the Nations Championship.<\/p>\n

How Mo\u2019unga differs to Savea<\/p>\n

However, due to the playmaker\u2019s decision to agree a three-year contract with Toshiba, rather than remain with the governing body, he firstly has to be play for Canterbury in the NPC before being considered for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

His situation is therefore different to the likes of Ardie Savea, who re-signed with New Zealand Rugby and had a sabbatical clause put in, allowing him to move to Japan on a short-term deal.<\/p>\n

There is one way the 31-year-old can be selected, though, and that is through injury, and Kirwan<\/a> expects head coach Dave Rennie to use that avenue to pick him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to happen. He\u2019s going to play for his club and he will be in Africa, don\u2019t even think about it,\u201d he said on the Rivals podcast alongside Springboks<\/a> legend Victor Matfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would happen back in the old days is they would say: \u2018JK, just pull a hammy and just fake it\u2019 and Richie plays [for Canterbury] and he\u2019s available the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matfield compared it to the 2023 Rugby World Cup where Rassie Erasmus used an injury to hooker Malcolm Marx as an opportunity to call up fly-half Handre Pollard.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many players are coming over? There\u2019s 45 so there will be injury. We saw it in the previous World Cup with Malcolm Marx getting injured and Handre Pollard coming in, so I think we can maybe see the same thing there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Springboks legends\u2019 \u2018loophole\u2019 Richie Mo\u2019unga prediction after \u2018stupid\u2019 NZ Rugby decision for South Africa tour<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve Lancaster is the new NZ Rugby CEO and recently doubled down on the Mo\u2019unga<\/a> situation, but Kirwan doesn\u2019t believe that is the end of the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came on television the other night and said: \u2018We want to stick to the rules\u2019, but I think in this case no one would give a toss if you bent the rule,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he will be on that tour, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks 10 competition<\/p>\n

Perhaps Mo\u2019unga\u2019s biggest obstacle to going on tour is the competition at fly-half with Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie established All Blacks<\/a> performers, while Ruben Love is seen as the rising star.<\/p>\n

Love has enjoyed an exceptional season for Super Rugby Pacific leaders the Hurricanes and may challenge that experienced duo for a starting spot at 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sort of player that can play 10 and 15 is really, really important for the South African tour, the only thing I would say about 10 is I think it takes a little bit longer than it used to in the past to really run a football team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so organised now, you\u2019ve got to know 250 moves. But I think he\u2019s a great talent and it\u2019s good that he\u2019s playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the saddest things for me last year was that he just didn\u2019t get a crack until that Welsh game and then he actually scored a try.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Dave Rennie reveals discarded Richie Mo\u2019unga plan and gives his verdict on All Blacks\u2019 fly-half stocks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir John Kirwan is absolutely certain that Richie Mo\u2019unga will feature for the All Blacks in South Africa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1463,1464,111,43,139,69,116474,1466,213],"class_list":["post-436750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-richie-mo","tag-south-africa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}