Richie Mo'unga still out in the cold as Dave Rennie confirms he likely won't tour SA

The New Zealand head coach wanted NZ Rugby to change their policy in order to allow the playmaker to tour South Africa in August. However, Rennie has announced that it is a certainty Mo'unga will not be named in the initial training squad for that series.

He only becomes eligible after featuring in the domestic NPC competition, which means only an injury to their playmakers while on tour will enable him to select the fly-half.

"He won't be coming on that tour so we will squash that. Under the current rule, he needs to play NPC and we'll have already named our squad prior to that," he told reporters.

"What we do have is if a 10 got injured then Richie's an option for us for us to bring in."

Rennie was asked whether it would have to be like-for-like or whether he could follow the Springboks' example, who picked Handre Pollard during the 2023 Rugby World Cup when Malcolm Marx got injured.

But the All Blacks boss implied that they could not be that flexible, saying: "Damian McKenzie plays 10 and he's playing 15 so I'm sure I can muster an argument around that somewhere. We'll have a pretty good crew of 10s that we take away."

Mo'unga obviously needs to perform well when back in New Zealand, but Rennie states that he has plenty of credit in the bank and will not necessarily have to perform at a spectacularly high level in the NPC.

"I got to see him first hand in Japan the last three years and he's been phenomenal. He just needs to slot in and play well, make sure his body is good," he said.

"He had a little calf niggle when he first got back so hopefully he's over that. We're not putting too many things in front of him around what he has to nail, but just be back and play, and get himself in great nick that if he gets an opportunity to come to South Africa, he's ready to go."

Should Mo'unga have to wait until after the Springboks series to get his Test opportunity, he will be competing with Ruben Love, Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett for a spot in the 23.

Rennie has currently selected Love at flyhalf and McKenzie at full-back with Barrett missing out on the three Nations Championship Tests against France, Italy and Ireland.

"We were tempted to play Beauden at 10 but it was Ruben's first Test in Christchurch, he played really well," the head coach added.

"The deal with getting a yellow card in the first minute and then coming back and showing that sort of composure, and then to play at home where he's played a lot of games in Wellington, so we went that way.

"With Damian, there's a lot of talk around Will Jordan playing 14 and not 15 but we can all see what quality he brings in that position and it's like having two full-backs on the field.

"We're keen to keep those combinations going, we're not saying that's the way it's going to be for the rest of the year.

"Beauden's certainly going to get his opportunity in South Africa and while it was tempting to throw him in, we're keen to give the young fella another crack."

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