{"id":596732,"date":"2026-09-11T04:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596732\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T04:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:02:11","slug":"all-blacks-vs-south-africa-dave-rennies-message-to-ruben-love-as-richie-mounga-picked-for-tour-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596732\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks vs South Africa: Dave Rennie\u2019s message to Ruben Love as Richie Mo\u2019unga picked for tour finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only injury to centre Billy Proctor opened that door<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His return, though, is a blow for Love on some levels. <\/p>\n

While the 25-year-old has had some shaky moments at first-five for the All Blacks, Love has continued to grow into the role, and offers a genuine look to the future beyond next year\u2019s World Cup. <\/p>\n

For Rennie, while rotation in Baltimore was always going to happen, this week\u2019s selection at No 10 isn\u2019t down to Love doing anything wrong, more so Mo\u2019unga doing everything right. <\/p>\n

\"RichieRichie Mo’unga will start his first test since the 2023 Rugby World Cup, against South Africa in Baltimore. Photo \/ SmartFrame<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about it a couple of weeks ago, regardless of the result at Soweto \u2013 whether we were up 2-1 or down 2-1 \u2013 we were going to start Richie,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been in the environment for a while, he\u2019s got a clear understanding of the game we want to play. [I\u2019m] keen to give him that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuben\u2019s gone really well, he\u2019s played the first six tests of the year. But when I spoke to him, I stressed the fact that last week was the biggest test the All Blacks have played since the [2023] World Cup final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe trusted him to run the ship ahead of three more experienced 10s. That highlights where we see him. But we\u2019re keen to give Richie a crack and he\u2019s prepared really well this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a World Cup just over a year away, Mo\u2019unga\u2019s return gives the All Blacks a logjam at No 10.<\/p>\n

As well as Love and Mo\u2019unga, Barrett and Damian McKenzie give Rennie world class options at 10, with the latter trio also able to cover fullback. <\/p>\n

The ability to line up at No 15 will also give the All Blacks breathing room, with a World Cup squad containing four specialist first-fives \u2013 something unheard of.<\/p>\n

The real winner, then, appears to be Love. <\/p>\n

Having shifted from fullback into first-five for the Hurricanes \u2013 and steering his side to their second Super Rugby title earlier this year \u2013 Love is, by all accounts, making the most of the experience around him.<\/p>\n

Most importantly for all four playmakers, internal competition will prove to be Love\u2019s biggest asset in developing further as the first choice. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeauden\u2019s not out of the reckoning from a 10 point of view, and Damian plays 10, so between those guys we feel like we have depth at 10 and 15,\u201d Rennie continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt, Richie\u2019s come in and been excellent. If you ask Ruben about the help he\u2019s got, Beauden\u2019s been great for him [as have] Damian and Richie.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to win, we need everyone going well. While they\u2019re competing against each other, they\u2019re also helping each other grow. Richie\u2019s got a lot of experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuben\u2019s been really smart, he\u2019s got beside a lot of those guys, [and] talked a lot of footy. It\u2019s really good for our group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only injury to centre Billy Proctor opened that door. His return, though, is a blow for Love on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[26640,190,9092,5263,806,45091,41932,8136,1320,9635,127,52636,3015,2082,2882,6096,215450,111,139,69,53478,138234,183683,13556,131808,1240,213,8137,23371,61,208,3007],"class_list":["post-596732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-affirmed","tag-africa","tag-against","tag-all","tag-as","tag-baltimore","tag-belief","tag-blacks","tag-coach","tag-dave","tag-despite","tag-dropping","tag-finale","tag-for","tag-love","tag-message","tag-mounga","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-picked","tag-rennie","tag-rennies","tag-richie","tag-ruben","tag-south","tag-sports","tag-springboks","tag-sundays","tag-to","tag-tour","tag-vs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596732","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=596732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}