New Zealand Rugby says Richie Mo'unga turned down longer-term contract that would have sped up return to All Blacks
Saturday, 9 August 2025
Mo’unga has signed an 18-month contract starting next July
Under NZ Rugby rules, he won’t be eligible for All Blacks until next October
Mo’unga’s agent says he wanted to keep his options open
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson has confirmed that Richie Mo’unga rejected a longer-term contract offer that would have hastened his return to the All Blacks.
NZ Rugby announced on Thursday that the 31-year-old had signed an 18-month deal from July 2026 to December 2027, putting him firmly in the frame for a third Rugby World Cup with the All Blacks.
But the deal came with a caveat, with Mo’unga deemed ineligible to represent the All Blacks until next October, ruling him out of the All Blacks’ much-anticipated tour of South Africa.
Robinson told The Post that NZ Rugby had tabled a longer-term offer that would have almost certainly sped up his return to the All Blacks under the governing body’s eligibility guidelines.
“We obviously had a conversation with Richie him being able to commit for longer, but ultimately this is Richie's decision to sign through to the World Cup, which we're really pleased about,” Robinson said.
“But it [the contract] doesn't make that threshold of him being able to come back immediately.
“We're really comfortable with that and Richie's really understanding of that and we're moving on.
“I don't want to get into the details of the conversations, but we would have been open for him for signing for longer.
“But we respect his decision to sign through to the World Cup.”
Mo’unga left New Zealand after the 2023 Rugby World Cup, by which time he had amassed seven Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders and four NPC titles with Canterbury.
He had also played in two Rugby World Cups, but his length of service before his exit to play in Japan was not enough for NZ Rugby to budge on its eligibility rules.
Mo’unga’s agent, Cameron McIntyre, told The Post that the playmaker wanted to return to the All Blacks “as soon as possible” and was open to further talks about how to make that happen, but was fully aware throughout the negotiations that the shorter-term contract would mean a delayed re-entry.
McIntyre also said that Mo’unga’s decision to sign for 18 months only reflected his desire to keep his options open.
Extending the deal with NZ Rugby to have a crack at the British and Irish Lions in 2029 was one possibility, McIntyre said, but Mo’unga was also aware that the rugby landscape was dynamic, with speculation rising that the new R360 competition could throw significant amounts of money at players.
The Mo’unga deal will prompt renewed debate about NZ Rugby’s eligibility settings, and comes shortly after Rugby Australia appeared to bin its “Giteau Law” guidelines that restricted the number of players the Wallabies can select from overseas.
Robinson admitted that Rugby Australia’s apparent shift had taken NZ Rugby by surprise given its potential implications for Super Rugby Pacific.
“Without knowing the full picture at this stage, we're really hoping that they retain as many players as they can and they keep building real strength and depth for the competition,” Robinson said.