In an episode released on Tuesday, Kieran Read explained what Richie Mo’unga would bring to Eden Park. The same day, Mo’unga tore his calf at training. By Thursday, Damian McKenzie had the 10 jersey.
“Richie is probably looking at a bigger picture,” Read said on The Good, The Bad & Rugby ANZ. Ruben Love, he said, is “someone who is wanting to potentially run first”.
Love is out for the year after ankle surgery. Mo’unga is out of both Bledisloe Tests. In one week the All Blacks lost both versions of the 10 that Read described.
So which one is McKenzie closer to, the runner or the reader? Tell us in the comments.
Read had Love as the runner and Mo’unga as the reader
Read captained the All Blacks from 2016 to 2019 and played 127 Tests. He was on with Justin Marshall and host Andy Rowe, and the question was the obvious one. Love is out, so how does Mo’unga change things?
“I think what Richie will bring slightly different to Ruben is I think Ruben is someone who is wanting to potentially run first, you know, like he’s looking to make impacts through attack… is what I’m seeing,” Read said.
“Richie is probably looking at a bigger picture and maybe that’s just through experience that he’s got. So he… will be looking for the full field whether it’s kick space or not.”
Love takes the ball flat and asks the defence a question with his feet. Mo’unga stands a step deeper and asks where the space is on the whole pitch. Sometimes the answer is a pass. Often it is grass behind the wing.
Read did not think the swap went any deeper than that. “I don’t think we change our game plan,” he said. “The All Blacks don’t change how we play just because they’re swapping those two guys.”
Read also: three weeks earlier, Read still called Ruben Love the All Blacks 10.
Marshall says Love lost Baltimore to illness, not form
Marshall answered first, and he went back to what Dave Rennie had told the media. Rennie, he said, was “very adamant” that “what Ruben Love is doing is working and is the direction that we want to go in”.
So why did Mo’unga start the last Test of the tour?
“The only reason… he was beat up before the Baltimore test… and was unwell during that week as well,” Marshall said. “So that was the change of selection there. It had nothing really to do with form.”
That is not how it looked from the outside. John Kirwan said after Soweto he would not be surprised to see Mo’unga at 10 in Baltimore. Marshall’s version is simpler. Love was hurt and sick.
The ankle never came right. On 30 September Rennie said Love “can probably run at 70%, but that’s not great for him, not great for us”, as RugbyPass reported. Five days later the All Blacks confirmed surgery. Love misses both Bledisloe Tests and the end-of-year Tests against Scotland, Wales and England.
Marshall said Mo’unga was off the pace in Baltimore
Marshall was just as blunt about the man who replaced him.
“It’s never easy to say, but you know, you’ve got to call it as it is. He was off the pace.”
Mo’unga spent three seasons with Toshiba Brave Lupus in Japan. His first game back in black was against the Lions at Ellis Park in August. Baltimore was his first Test since he lost the 2023 World Cup final to the Springboks by a point, and the Springboks won it 43-28 to take the series 3-1.
“It’s just a different tempo and physicality and I felt that he started to work it out in that first test. I mean, in that Baltimore test,” Marshall said. “But yeah, he needs to step up to where he was.”
Eden Park was meant to be that step. He does not get it now. The All Blacks have given no return date for the calf.
Read wanted the half breach, and McKenzie is the one who makes it
Read was clear about what the three weeks off were for.
“Over these two weeks, that three weeks we’ve had off, we’re going to be working so hard on our ability to hold the ball, but also not just hold the ball, but we can only score tries off that gain-line play, right? Like making that half breach that sets up the next one.”
That is a job for a runner. McKenzie takes the line on the way Love does, and he makes half breaks for himself. On Read’s terms he is closer to Love than to Mo’unga.
What he has to show on Saturday is the other half of Read’s description, putting 14 men in the right places when the first carry does not get over the line. Beauden Barrett starts at 15, not 10, and Josh Jacomb is not in the 23. If McKenzie goes off, there is no specialist 10 on the bench.
Your turn: runner or reader?
Rennie built 2026 around a 10 who runs first. He has one again on Saturday, only it is McKenzie and not Love. Is that the right call against the Wallabies, or did the All Blacks need Mo’unga’s full-field read more than they knew? Settle it below.
Read next: how the Mo’unga call for Baltimore was made before Soweto, and Read on why the All Blacks defence is built to make numbers.
Frequently asked
Why is Ruben Love not playing in the Bledisloe Cup?
An ankle ligament injury. The All Blacks confirmed on 5 October that Love needs surgery and will miss the rest of 2026, including both Bledisloe Tests and the end-of-year Tests against Scotland, Wales and England.
Why is Richie Mo’unga not playing against the Wallabies?
He tore his calf at training on Tuesday 6 October. The All Blacks ruled him out of both Bledisloe Cup Tests and have not given a return date.
Who plays 10 for the All Blacks against the Wallabies?
Damian McKenzie starts at first five at Eden Park on Saturday 10 October. Beauden Barrett starts at fullback. Josh Jacomb, the other specialist 10 in the squad, is not in the matchday 23.
Where did Kieran Read say this?
On The Good, The Bad & Rugby ANZ, in a Bledisloe preview released on 6 October with Justin Marshall and host Andy Rowe. The auto-captions spell Ruben as “Reuben”, “Baltimore” as “Bolton war” and “gain-line” as “gameline”; those are corrected in the quotes above.
