{"id":615854,"date":"2026-09-30T00:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615854\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T00:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:46:09","slug":"all-blacks-v-wallabies-richie-mounga-handed-chance-to-reclaim-no-10-jersey-after-ruben-love-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615854\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks v Wallabies: Richie Mo\u2019unga handed chance to reclaim No 10 jersey after Ruben Love injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking on Newstalk ZB\u2019s Sportstalk, Mo\u2019unga said he was grateful to be part of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a plan for a long time, to come back and put my bid in for the jersey,\u201d Mo\u2019unga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a real competitor and I want to be at my best for this team. Regardless of the situation with Ruben, I\u2019m willing to do that and keep that same energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to the next couple of weeks and what they hold, and I\u2019m just focusing on making sure I play some good footy.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mo\u2019unga admits it was an adjustment returning to the All Blacks fold after a few years. <\/p>\n

He played the tour match against the Lions before starting in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came back into the team and I met half the team for the first time,\u201d Mo\u2019unga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs well as meeting teammates for the first time, meeting new coaching staff and just the different way the All Blacks are operating now, was really good to get in and learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be operating at a really high level to be part of this team and that\u2019s the thing that remains the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his one test, Mo\u2019unga failed to stamp his mark, but Rennie was quick to defend his performance on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just weren\u2019t accurate enough in Baltimore to maybe allow Richie to have a bigger impact on the game,\u201d Rennie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re constantly turning the ball over, the game\u2019s slower and, obviously, it was nice to give him a bit of time to run the ship and I think he will be better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attention now turns to Eden Park next Saturday where the All Blacks will look to defend their unbeaten record since 1994 at the stadium while snapping a three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

\"RichieRichie Mo’unga. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

The Wallabies head to the match after a dramatic 42-38 win over the Springboks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All eyes will be on Mo\u2019unga on October 10, but he was careful not to assume the starting role was his.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Ruben out it\u2019s still not clear cut that I\u2019m the one to do the job,\u201d Mo\u2019unga said. \u201cBut the one thing that he has given us is free range and licence to play what we see.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe likes a game that\u2019s high tempo and that we express ourselves and use our skills to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also paid tribute to Love, who he contacted following the injury, stressing that the two are teammates before competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gutted to see that happen to him and wishing him speedy recovery,\u201d Mo\u2019unga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a true competitor and a true teammate he is. He messaged back saying he\u2019s backing the boys and believing we can get the job done the next couple weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ben Francis<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking on Newstalk ZB\u2019s Sportstalk, Mo\u2019unga said he was grateful to be part of the team. \u201cThis has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9331,9055,74,9092,5263,42639,8136,26888,3246,6259,29888,15258,20439,2882,92823,13085,215450,111,139,7805,69,10521,14300,10538,13310,129043,13556,205,131808,213,4497,764,61,34432,102],"class_list":["post-615854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-chance","tag-9055","tag-after","tag-against","tag-all","tag-ankle","tag-blacks","tag-bledisloe","tag-both","tag-door","tag-handed","tag-injury","tag-jersey","tag-love","tag-loves","tag-matches","tag-mounga","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-no","tag-nz","tag-opening","tag-pivotal","tag-play","tag-poised","tag-reclaim","tag-richie","tag-role","tag-ruben","tag-sports","tag-start","tag-tests","tag-to","tag-wallabies","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615854","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=615854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}