Mo'unga hails 'complete' Springboks as better than 2023 World Cup winners after series defeat

Richie Mo’unga marked his return to Test rugby after 1,050 days away by conceding that the Springboks are a better side than the one that edged New Zealand by a single point in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, as South Africa sealed a historic Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series win with a 43-28 victory at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday.

South Africa recovered from a game-one defeat at Ellis Park to win three consecutive matches against the All Blacks, claiming the RGR trophy — which will now sit alongside four World Cups at South Africa Rugby HQ until the series returns to New Zealand in 2030. The Boks led by just three points at halftime in the decider before pulling clear with two unanswered tries early in the second half, with both teams trading scores in the final quarter.

“They’re a complete team: able to take you on up front, able to be really clinical and take you in threes, but also they’ve got players who can play; guys with fast feet out in the backs,” Mo’unga told reporters in Baltimore. Asked directly whether Rassie Erasmus’s current side surpasses the 2023 vintage, the fly-half did not hesitate. “Definitely,” he said. “They’re just such a great team at applying pressure and taking opportunities. And we didn’t take ours.”

Mo’unga’s last international appearance before Saturday had been that World Cup final at Stade de France — a match New Zealand lost by one point. The 32-year-old spent the intervening three years playing club rugby in Tokyo, forgoing All Blacks eligibility in the process, before earning his recall for the series. Saturday’s defeat was his tenth Test against South Africa.

Despite the scoreline, Mo’unga was candid about the lessons New Zealand must take from the four-match series. “It presents us with really good opportunities; we know we need to be better, and that’s been the story of the last four Tests,” he said. “But if we can really take those learnings, it’ll be really exciting for the future of this team. It might be what we can do without the ball — really suffocating them down in their own half. It just comes down to some of those small moments I think we can be better in.”

On a personal level, Mo’unga described his return to the Test arena as everything he had anticipated. “To be honest, it’s a bit of a blur,” he reflected shortly after the final whistle. “But just assessing how I’m feeling — it’s so special to be back. After three years, it’s exactly what I thought it would be like. I felt like I belonged out there. The last three years building to that moment, it’s just really worth it.”