Former Manu Samoa No 10 and freelance rugby scribe Campbell Burnes looks forward to a juicy head to head All Blacks No 10 battle over the next 12 months.
Just last year, the All Blacks were leaning on two playmakers – Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie.
After the epic Test series between the All Blacks and Springboks, they are still operating with two key game drivers – Ruben Love and Richie Mo’unga.
With McKenzie now cast mainly as a fullback, this is the time for Richie Mo and Love to take the All Blacks through to Rugby World Cup next year. The squeeze will be on Barrett to even make a match-day 23.
Love made a good fist of his first four Tests of 2026, the July Nations Championship in NZ and the first Test of the tour to South Africa. His goalkicking was especially pleasing. He did not overplay his hand after a superb campaign with the Hurricanes in Super Rugby Pacific. But the going got tougher in the Republic when his forwards could not give him the requisite platform and he ended up kicking rather too much ball away. The lessons were severe but will do him the world of good in the long run. It was, however, strange, at least to this eye, that Mo’unga was not brought onto at least the bench for the second and third Tests, instead being earmarked for the Baltimore series-defining Test. There he failed to make a huge impact, but this is hardly surprising given he had just the one prior outing, against the Lions, where his play in the pivotal last two quarters was decisive in the All Blacks’ come from behind win. The All Blacks had called him over when centre Billy Proctor went down, an early indication that they saw him as important to the wider cause. And yet he was under-utilised in the biggest Test series in years.
Both men would have played pivotal roles in the second leg of the Nations Championship in November, but Love was ruled out due to injury, while Mo’unga was also in doubt.
Love is a classy athlete, but until about May this season we all thought he was a fullback who could do a job at first five on occasion. The manner in which he guided the Hurricanes at squeaky bum time suggested he was made of the right stuff. On balance, he has made a very promising start to his career as an All Blacks pivot.
But Mo’unga has not come home from a lucrative time in Japan to wear the No 22 jersey. He will be doing all he can to seize the reins and show his considerable wares, born of 57 Tests’ worth of experience (at the time of writing). His has many sceptics and critics, many of whom lay the blame for the last two RWC failures squarely at his feet, even though a No 10 cannot dictate unless his pack gains the upper hand. This scribe rates Mo’unga very highly, always has done. What it means is that All Blacks’ fans can look forward to the next 12 months with some confidence knowing there are two quality generals running the cutter, as we saw with Grant Fox and Frano Botica in the 1980s, Andrew Mehrtens and Carlos Spencer in the ‘90s and then Dan Carter and Aaron Cruden, amongst others, in the 2000s and 2010s.