Mo’unga: No risk, no reward
There is no reward without risk and Richie Mo’unga knows it.
So for that reason, the Crusaders first-five says his side cannot afford to water down its attacking game against the Blues at Eden Park on Saturday night.
Following an error-ridden first half hour at AMI Stadium on Saturday night, nobody could blame the Crusaders for taking an up-the-jumper low-risk game plan into the Blues clash.
The Waratahs were able to run in four tries in the first 30 minutes on the back of constant knock-ons, turnovers and an illdirected kicking game before the Crusaders staged a remarkable comeback to win 31-29.
As painful as the mistakes were for Crusaders fans to stomach, Mo’unga said they must show belief in their attacking flair. The accuracy needs to improve but not by going into conservative mode.
‘‘We can’t shy away from pushing the pass or giving offloads,’’ Mo’unga said.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson will have to sweat over the availability of Manasa Mataele, who left the field in the final minutes with a head and possible neck injury, and loosehead prop Joe Moody, who was cited for allegedly striking Kurtley Beale, for the Blues clash.
The Crusaders were threatening in the first 30 minutes against the Waratahs but too often the final pass went to ground.
Mo’unga described many of the errors as positive mistakes – a stance that is much easier to take when the smoking bullet, of his Waratahs opposite Bernard Foley missing a potentially matchwinning penalty, has been successfully dodged.
‘‘They were ones where if we’d caught them or we had executed we would have scored,’’ Mo’unga said.
But he warned the attacking approach must come with a balance of building pressure and holding onto the ball to build multiple phases. The natural assumption was that Robertson would be tearing strips off his players at halftime but he shared a similar view to Mo’unga.
As the mistakes and turnovers – 11 in the first half alone – racked up Robertson was urging his side to keep expressing themselves with positive rugby. He knew the Crusaders were creating enough opportunities and said it was important to trust their skill and keep pushing passes.
Robertson said he was confident his side could swing the momentum back their way.
‘‘They were massive swings. There was a little knock on off a couple of line breaks, if we’d have taken them we might have scored but they scored.’’
The Crusaders did not help themselves by kicking possession to high ball specialist Israel Folau and Mo’unga conceded they kicked too much ball away in the first half. Robertson said the aerial raid was planned but obviously Folau was not the target.
‘‘He is just incredible in the air and punished us for it on a couple of occasions.’’
Fighting back with 31 unanswered points following the first half blitz from the Waratahs was never the plan but it does fill the Crusaders with plenty of belief going forward.
‘‘For games in the future, if we’re under the pump or under a bit of pressure we know we’ve come through it before,’’ Mo’unga said.
The trans-Tasman dominance of New Zealand teams now stands at 39 straight wins over their Australian rivals.