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Watch: The game where Beauden Barrett silenced the calls for Mo'unga from Crusaders' fans
By Online Editors
In 2018 the Crusaders had well and truly taken over Super Rugby, affirming their dominance over New Zealand's previous number one team, the Hurricanes.
With it came growing calls from Canterbury for Richie Mo'unga to take over from Beauden Barrett as the All Blacks first-five.
The back-to-back World Rugby Player of the Year entered the 2018 international season under the cloud of Mo'unga debate as the All Blacks took on France in June.
An unconvincing first 50-minutes in the first test did little to quell the talk, as the All Blacks went to sheds down at halftime.
A second-half blitz powered by Damian McKenzie and Ngani Laumape off the bench blew the French off the park but Barrett's influence wasn't at the level that the fans were used to.
Barrett himself lasted just 10-minutes in the second test after an aerial challenge with Benjamin Fall forced him from the field and out of the remainder of the series.
Heading into The Rugby Championship, the Crusaders had just secured back-to-back Super Rugby titles by downing the Lions for a second time, this time at home 37-18. On the way, they dispatched Barrett's Hurricanes 30-12 in Christchurch in the semi-finals.
The calls for Mo'unga to take over were peaking. It was time for Barrett to silence them.
In a 38-13 win in the first Bledisloe test Sydney, Barrett scored the pivotal try that broke the game open and set up two more in a 13-point haul.
The All Blacks returned to Eden Park to pump the Wallabies 40-12 with Barrett himself scoring four tries in a 30-point personal tally, a Bledisloe record.
Barrett quickly resumed his reign as the All Blacks 10 and put together another solid season to earn another nomination as the World Rugby Player of the Year but fell short of three straight awards, with the title going to Johnny Sexton.
Barrett's four-try performance against the Wallabies would go down as the game that put the Mo'unga talk to bed in the 2018 season.
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Latest Comments
Agreed. And I don't have much more to say on it, but I had been having one thought that sprang to mind at the tail of this discussion, and that is that it's not all about Razor.
It's not about any coach being "right". I think a lot of selections can become defense and while it doesn't really apply here I really enjoyed that Andy Farrell just gave into the public demands and changed out his team for the change that had been asked for. Like why not? This is the countries team, keep them engaged. The whole reason i've only just finished watching the game was because I wasn't interested in watching any of the selected players against a team like Italy (still actually enjoyed the first half with the contest Italy made of it).
Faz leap frogs a younger half back into start. He hands the golden child the game over July's golden child. He gives an old winger a go, a new flanker and hooker. None of them really did any good, certainly not enough to suggest they should have been promoted above others, but who cares? You won, and you gave the country what they wanted, that's all that matters after all. It's for the country, not the one in charge who thinks they have to have their own pied piper tune playing.
Go to commentsAs Naas would say... A win is a win.
It was not perfect and at times frustrating. All 3 tests were not the best by the Boks and they still found ways to win.
Rassie would have noted the sloppyness at times and silly mistakes. The 9's made amateur handling mistakes when clearing the rucks in all 3 tests.
Once the "stupid" mistakes are eliminated, this Bok team will be very very hard to beat.
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