Ruben Love was left out of the 23 in Baltimore and Richie Mo’unga started. On The Good, The Bad & Rugby ANZ on Sunday, Kieran Read and Jeremy Paul watched it back and picked Love for Eden Park anyway.
Ruben Love did not make the 23 in Baltimore. By Sunday morning, two men with 199 Tests between them had picked him for Eden Park anyway.
Love, 25, started the first three Tests of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry at 10. He left seven points on the tee in Soweto and spent ten minutes of that Test in the bin.
The call to start Mo’unga in Baltimore was made before Soweto. On Saturday 12 September Mo’unga played his first Test since the World Cup final in Paris. New Zealand lost 43-28, and the ratings here gave him 5.5, the lowest mark in black.
Then Read, 127 Tests and the All Blacks captain from 2016 to 2019, sat down on The Good, The Bad & Rugby ANZ with Jeremy Paul, 72 Tests at hooker for Australia, and both chose Love. Read’s words: “I think Ruben Love’s our 10. Our guy we need to invest in.”
His reason is not the one you would expect from a man who had just watched Mo’unga. It is a pass Mo’unga threw in the 80th minute, and it comes below. Would you hand the jersey back to Love for Eden Park, or does one Test at 5.5 tell you nothing about Mo’unga?
Persevere with Ruben Love
Paul went first, and did not hedge.
“The big one for me obviously is Ruben Love. So, um, first year in 10. Roigard outstanding, always a threat… I think he’s the 10. I really do. Look, I think you got to persevere with him here. He’s got the two greatest tens in All Black history, right?… Richie Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett for that player coaching… that’s your best coaching, right, is your player coaching… I feel you just got to stick with this kid. I think he’s going to be something incredibly special, particularly in his first year.”
“Two greatest tens in All Black history” is Paul’s ranking. Dan Carter’s version of the perfect 10 is on this site, and it was built without either of them. The point underneath is sound, though. Mo’unga and Barrett in one squad are the best fly-half tutors in the world, and a tutor is not the same thing as a starter.
Love made his debut off the bench against Japan in Yokohama two years ago and scored twice in the last ten minutes. He has signed through to 2028. Less than two years after that debut he was learning the position against the Springboks’ line speed, in public, with a World Cup a year away.
A step behind, and a better kicker
Rowe asked Read about Mo’unga’s game, and the answer was careful.
“He was rock solid, but especially the kicks… one step behind, man… you could tell it was a step up in terms of pace and everything… but his ability to kick, like there’s one he put him in the corner. He kicked better, I think.”
The ratings agree about the kicking and not much else. The clearance after Tupou Vaa’i’s steal on 27 did not find touch and South Africa came straight back. The kick to the corner on 62 set up Ethan Blackadder’s try.
The long passages, 32 phases before Will Jordan’s try and 17 more after the break, ran through the forwards and Cam Roigard. The shape never went through the fly-half.
Read also: Love kept the jersey through a Springboks pack in Cape Town, and the warning then was that he would have to keep it from Mo’unga.
The pass Mo’unga threw in the 80th minute
Then the pass.
“The only thing with Reuben across the series was… maybe didn’t have the opportunities or didn’t find a chance to get his hands on the ball, or it’s just learning, right? Because you’re learning how to attack against a team that’s coming the way the Saffas defend, whereas Richie knows what to do there. That one where Bod scored at the end, which is just experience, right? He just stays where he was, didn’t even move forward from the back ball, catches it, and just flings on Bod on outboard to use his feet… So like Richie was solid. I’m same as JP. I think Ruben Love’s our 10. Our guy we need to invest in.”
Read describes, in detail, the thing Love does not yet have. Mo’unga stands still off the back of the ruck, does not drift forward, takes the ball and releases Beauden Barrett with nothing wasted, and Barrett goes under the posts on 80. Knowing what to do in that moment against a defence coming that fast is experience, and Mo’unga has it.
Then Read picks the man without it.
Experience does not come off a bench. It comes from Tests, and Read wants Love to keep playing them. Mo’unga was solid, and solid was 5.5 in a Test the match happened around.
Cam, this is your chance to have a run
Read’s other point was about who Love plays with.
“What we didn’t do as much as play off Roigard… Roigard was outstanding, but it was all from loose play, loose balls… his ability off a quick ruck or the ball spits out… that’s maybe a little blueprint for the All Blacks to go, okay, why don’t we actually just purposefully go around that ruck a bit more… Okay, Cam, this is your chance to have a run. All good. Wherever you get tackled, we’ll play off the back of it.”
Roigard and Love play together at the Hurricanes. Paul: “The 9-10 combo… he’s going to learn.” Read: “They play together… at the Hurricanes.” Paul: “You’re going to love that combo.” Aaron Smith’s rule about the halfback that nobody writes down is the same instinct Read wants built into the structure rather than left to Roigard’s judgement.
Paul’s technical addition came from his own halfback. George Gregan, he said, invented “the Gregan ball” by aiming at the inside shoulder of the second defender, so the first defender was dragged across. Forward runners sat between the second and third defenders and between the third and fourth. The call went in a phase or two early: “S ball’s on”.
Codie Taylor’s try on 8 in Baltimore, in Paul’s reading, came in that third-and-fourth channel, Jordie Barrett the third runner and Taylor the fourth. A settled 9-10 makes that call a phase before the defence sees it. Love and Roigard have been making it together at the Hurricanes.
The site’s position
John Kirwan wants a decision on the 10 by November, not a rotation. The decision here: Love starts against Australia at Eden Park on Saturday 10 October, Mo’unga covers the last twenty, and Beauden Barrett’s minutes come at 15 or not at all. Four Tests against the Springboks are the hardest schooling a fly-half can get. Drop him now and they were for nothing.
Read next: Mo’unga said after Baltimore that the Springboks have got better since the 2023 final, which is the defence Love has been learning against.
Frequently asked
Why was Ruben Love left out of the All Blacks 23 in Baltimore?
Dave Rennie made the call to start Richie Mo’unga before the third Test in Soweto, where Love missed seven points off the tee and was sin-binned. Mo’unga started, Beauden Barrett covered from the bench, and Love was not in the 23.
Who do Kieran Read and Jeremy Paul want at 10 for the Bledisloe Cup?
Both said Ruben Love. Read: “I think Ruben Love’s our 10. Our guy we need to invest in.” Paul: “I think he’s the 10. I really do.”
What did Kieran Read say about Richie Mo’unga in Baltimore?
That he was “rock solid” and kicked better than Love, but looked “one step behind” the pace, and that his pass for Beauden Barrett’s late try was experience Love does not yet have.
Your turn: Love or Mo’unga at Eden Park?
Two ways to see it. Either Love is the 10 and Baltimore was the one Test he needed to watch from the stand, or the World Cup is a year away and the man who knows what to do against that line speed should be starting now. Read and Paul say the first. The ratings gave Mo’unga the lowest mark in black. Settle it below.
