Richie Mo'unga: touch fields, seven Crusaders titles, a broken-hand final and the road home

As a boy in Christchurch, Richie Mo'unga watched every Crusaders game with his father and set himself a goal: one day he would play for them. He went on to play 109 times for the Crusaders and win seven titles in seven seasons, then won two more in Japan, the second with a broken hand. In between he played 57 Tests at first five-eighth for the All Blacks, including two World Cup semi-finals and the 2023 final, and on RUGBE's records his 464 Test points are the fifth most by any All Black. In 2026 he came home. A calf tear has kept him out of the first Test of the northern tour, but he is in the squad, and back in red and black for 2027.

Where he comes from

Richard Fou'a Mo'unga was born in Christchurch on 25 May 1994, to a Tongan-born father and a Samoan-born mother. League was in the family too: an older brother played domestic rugby league for the Canterbury Bulls.

A lot of his game was learned somewhere else. As 1News rugby writer Patrick McKendry wrote in 2026, Mo'unga developed much of his craft playing touch on the fields of Christchurch and represented New Zealand at touch as a teenager. McKendry traced the subtle shift and step to the outside that later beat Test defences back to those fields, and Mo'unga still plays touch with his mates in summer.

St Andrew's College

He started at Riccarton High School before taking up a scholarship at St Andrew's College, where he played in the under 15s in 2009, spent three years in the First XV and captained it in 2012, according to Wikipedia. The UC Championship was crowded with future professionals at the time, Damian McKenzie at Christ's College and Anton Lienert-Brown and Fletcher Smith at Christchurch Boys' High among them.

Rugby league noticed him too. On First XV tours to the Gold Coast, his coach Mike Johnston later told Stuff, league scouts were very interested in the St Andrew's playmaker. He stayed with union, and with Canterbury.

Linwood and Canterbury

Out of school he joined the Linwood club, and Canterbury's academy. Not many clubs thought an 18-year-old was ready for senior rugby, he said in 2023, but through Linwood he met Scott Hansen, later a Crusaders assistant coach. "You're good enough, you're old enough, son," Mo'unga remembered Hansen telling him. He has credited Hansen ever since with shaping him as a player and as a person.

He was not in Canterbury's original squad for the 2013 ITM Cup, but in his first year out of school he was called in to cover injuries and All Blacks absences, made his debut against Manawatu and played eight games as Canterbury won the Premiership. He played ten more in 2014, at first five and fullback, and was part of title-winning Canterbury sides again in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The 2017 season was the one that made his name. He was the leading points scorer in the competition with 160 in ten games, and in the final against Tasman he scored 25 points, two tries, three conversions and three penalties, a record for a provincial final, and was named man of the match.

Under 20s

In 2014 he played for New Zealand Under 20 at the Junior World Championship on home soil, alongside McKenzie. South Africa beat them twice, the second time 32-25 in the semi-final in Auckland, but Mo'unga scored two tries as New Zealand beat Ireland to finish third. He scored 29 points in five games at the tournament.

The Crusaders

He was in the Crusaders' wider training group in 2015 but did not play, with Dan Carter, Colin Slade and Tom Taylor ahead of him. All three left after the 2015 World Cup. Mo'unga made his debut against the Chiefs in Christchurch on 27 February 2016, scored 13 points and started every one of the side's 16 games that season.

Scott Robertson took over in 2017, and the Crusaders, nine years without a title, won the next seven in a row. Mo'unga kicked ten points in the 25-17 win over the Lions at Ellis Park in Johannesburg in the 2017 final, which he later named as his highlight. In 2018 he was man of the match in the 37-18 final win over the same opponents in Christchurch, kicking 17 points. "I've worked hard to get here to this position, it didn't just happen," he said that night. He kicked 14 points in the 19-3 win over the Jaguares in 2019, then helped win Super Rugby Aotearoa in 2020 and 2021, and the Super Rugby Pacific titles of 2022, when he dropped a goal in the 21-7 final win over the Blues at Eden Park, and 2023.

In 2021 he was named Super Rugby Player of the Year at the New Zealand Rugby Awards. In April 2023 he became the Crusaders' 23rd centurion, and his last game for the club was the 2023 final in Hamilton, where he scored a try and kicked 14 points in a 25-20 win over the Chiefs.

Robertson, asked to compare him with the Crusaders' earlier first fives, put him beside Andrew Mehrtens and Carter. "He's a winner. He knows how to win," Robertson said, and when Mo'unga's departure was announced: "When Richie is on, the team is on."

The All Blacks

Mo'unga's first taste of the All Blacks came as injury cover for the third Bledisloe Test of 2017. That November he played for the Barbarians against them at Twickenham and scored the opening try, then joined the touring squad and came off the bench against a French XV in a match that did not count as a Test.

His Test debut came off the bench against France in Dunedin on 23 June 2018, a 49-14 win. His first start was against Argentina in Nelson on 8 September 2018, when he kicked 16 points in a 46-24 win. A month later in Pretoria he came on in the second half and converted Ardie Savea's last-minute try to beat the Springboks 32-30. In Tokyo in November he scored his first Test try and 22 points against Japan.

By the 2019 World Cup he was the first-choice ten, with Beauden Barrett moved to fullback. He was man of the match against Canada, a game in which he passed 100 Test points in only his seventh start, and kicked 11 points in the 46-14 quarter-final win over Ireland. England beat the All Blacks 19-7 in the semi-final, and Mo'unga scored a try in the 40-17 win over Wales in the bronze final.

He was at ten for most of the next four years. In Sydney on 31 October 2020 he scored two tries and 23 points in a 43-5 win over Australia, and he matched that total with a try and nine conversions in the 104-14 win over the United States in Washington in 2021. In 2022 he kicked 15 points in the 35-23 win at Ellis Park and scored a try in the 39-37 win over Australia in Melbourne.

In December 2022 he signed a three-year contract with Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo in Japan, starting after the 2023 World Cup. "It's a dream of mine to play rugby overseas," he said. Under New Zealand Rugby's rules, that meant his All Blacks career would be on hold.

The 2023 World Cup

He played his last season for New Zealand as the starting first five. He scored 20 points, including a try, in the 35-20 win over South Africa at Eden Park in July. At the World Cup in France he kicked nine conversions against Italy in Lyon, scored a try against Uruguay, and started the 28-24 quarter-final win over Ireland and the 44-6 semi-final win over Argentina at the Stade de France. In the final against South Africa he kicked two penalties, and the All Blacks lost 12-11.

Japan: two titles and a broken hand

At Toshiba he joined Shannon Frizell and coach Todd Blackadder. In his first season the Brave Lupus beat the previously unbeaten Saitama Wild Knights 24-20 in the League One final in front of 56,486 people at Tokyo's National Stadium on 26 May 2024, the day after his 30th birthday. A 50/20 kick from Mo'unga set up one of Jone Naikabula's two tries, and it was the club's first major title since 2011.

The second was harder. He broke his right hand in the 2025 semi-final, and Blackadder rated him "70-30" to miss the final. Mo'unga spent three days in an oxygen chamber, played anyway, scored a try, set up the other and was named man of the match as Toshiba beat Kubota Spears 18-13 to defend their title. "It shows his resilience," said Kubota's Malcolm Marx, who had not known about the injury.

New Zealand Rugby tried and failed to bring him home a year early for the 2025 season. In August 2025 he signed an 18-month deal with New Zealand Rugby, Canterbury and the Crusaders, starting in July 2026. "The Crusaders have always been a huge part of my life," he said. His third season in Japan ended with a 26-3 quarter-final loss to Kubota.

Home again

Under the deal he had to play for Canterbury in the NPC before he could be picked for the All Blacks, and in July Dave Rennie ruled him out of the South Africa tour squad. "He won't be coming on that tour, so we'll squash that," Rennie said, while leaving the door open if a first five was injured.

On 1 August 2026, in front of about 20,000 at Christchurch's new stadium, Mo'unga came off the bench against Auckland for his first NPC game since 2020. He dropped his first high ball and missed a conversion that would have put Canterbury ahead. Then, with three minutes left and the forwards camped on Auckland's line, he took the ball at the back of a ruck, shifted right and went over untouched for the winning try in a 38-31 win. "I will 'be where my feet are' and whatever happens, happens," he said.

Within a fortnight Billy Proctor's tour had ended with a shoulder injury, and Mo'unga was on a plane to South Africa. "Richie is the obvious choice as a replacement," Rennie said. Rennie named him at ten for a midweek match against the Lions in Johannesburg, his first All Blacks selection since the World Cup final, and on 12 September he started at ten in Baltimore, his 57th Test, as the Springboks won 43-28 to take the series 3-1.

He had taken over the No 10 jersey after Ruben Love's ankle injury, but on the Tuesday before the first Bledisloe Test at Eden Park he tore a calf muscle at training and missed both Tests against Australia. He was named in the 36-man squad for the northern tour, but the calf ruled him out of the Scotland Test. "He's a good chance for Wales," Rennie said.

Style and standing

Robertson, who coached him for seven Super Rugby seasons, has described him as "one of the most influential Super Rugby players ever", pointing to his ability to score points year after year in big moments. Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge, welcoming him back, said he had "this gift of bringing out the best in those around him". Robertson said he first saw it in Mo'unga's club rugby, where he played with the time and bravado of a touch player.

His own explanation for his progress, as a 24-year-old after the 2018 final, was maturity and work: he said he had become more of a leader "in my words, but in my actions too".

Honours: Super Rugby champion 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023; Super Rugby Aotearoa champion 2020 and 2021; Japan Rugby League One champion 2024 and 2025; NPC champion with Canterbury 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017; Super Rugby Player of the Year (New Zealand Rugby Awards) 2021; Rugby World Cup runner-up 2023 and third place 2019.

Off the field

Mo'unga married in the chapel at St Andrew's in 2019 and has a young family. During the 2019 World Cup he posted videos of himself playing the piano in team hotels. He also owns a ten per cent share of a racehorse named after him, and gives his portion of its winnings to a children's cancer charity; Rugby World reported the charity received NZ$25,000 when the horse won the Winx Stakes at Randwick in August 2021.

Where he is now

Mo'unga, 32, is with the All Blacks in Edinburgh, recovering from his calf tear, with the Wales Test in Cardiff (15 November, New Zealand time) his target, then England at Twickenham. He is contracted to New Zealand Rugby to the end of 2027 and is in the Crusaders' squad for 2027 as first five, under a new head coach: Scott Hansen, the man who told him at Linwood that he was good enough.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data to 17 October 2026. Club, provincial and Japan figures are from Wikipedia, updated August 2026.