Sevu Reece praises ‘crazy’ All Blacks playmaker’s influence on his career
All Blacks duo Richie Mo'unga and Sevu Reece.
All Blacks flyer Sevu Reece has admitted that he misses his former team-mate Richie Mo’unga and revealed the influence the playmaker has had on improving the wing’s game.
Mo’unga was part of the successful Crusaders side who won seven Super Rugby titles between 2017 and 2023, with Reece joining in 2019.
However, the fly-half is ineligible to play for the All Blacks after moving to Japan Rugby League One outfit Toshiba Brave Lupus following New Zealand’s 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign.
Like Reece, current All Blacks boss Scott Robertson, who was in charge of the Crusaders when they were won those seven Super Rugby titles, also rates Mo’unga highly and at the start of the year asked New Zealand Rugby (NZR) officials to keep an “open mind” regarding the selection of overseas-based players.
Under the NZR’s current rules, only players who ply their trade in New Zealand are eligible to represent the All Blacks and Mo’unga is one of the most high profile players affected by that decision.
In talks to lure Mo’unga back
Earlier this year, NZR general manager of professional rugby, Chris Lendrum, revealed that they were in talks to lure the All Blacks fly-half back from Japan where he had signed a three-year deal.
That would be music to Reece‘s ears and the speedster spoke glowingly of Mo’unga and the role he played in helping him improve as a player since he joined the Crusaders.
“When I first moved down to Christchurch, I know great people, the Crusaders, it’s a great team,” he told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod. “And Richie was one of the guys that, I mean, I watched him on TV, I was like, ‘man, we’re in the same team’, blah, blah, blah.
“But then we got really close and then he was one of the guys that took me under his wing, and I started to learn and just see the things he does.
“I could then put it into my game and you just see the little things that he does, just the understanding of the game was probably a massive one.
“And I remember, sometimes, even when it’s out on the field, Richie knows everyone’s single move, like, your movements, he knows. And I’m like, that’s crazy.
“That’s probably the one thing that stuck out for me. I don’t know if it’s a first five’s job to know everyone’s role and I’m like, I don’t know, but he literally knows what everyone’s supposed to do.
“If you can see the game like that, I still think that’s crazy.
“Like, you literally knowing everyone’s movements and if you know everyone’s movements and I think that’s, yeah, that’s crazy.”
Although the Crusaders had a forgetful 2024 Super Rugby Pacific campaign, Reece was one of their star performers as he finished as the tournament’s joint-highest try-scorer.
And while Mo’unga is no longer his team-mate, the 27-year-old believes his all-round game has improved due to conversations he has had with Mo’unga, as well as the fly-half’s influence.
‘He’s helped me a lot’
“He’s helped me a lot and we have catch-ups every now and then. And he still thinks I could add this to my game. I’m a winger that actually kicks too as well a lot now and those are things that he actually told me,” said Reece.
“He was like, ‘man, you could be a winger that could kick really well’, and then those are the things that I put into my game.”
Reece spent most of the 2023 season on the sidelines due to an ACL injury and said it was tough with Mo’unga no longer at the Crusaders when he returned to action at the start of this year.
“At the start of this year, you know, it was the first day back when we went into Rugby Park (in Christchurch) and my locker’s right next to his locker over there,” he said.
“Then I walked in, sat down with my bags and then I looked up and then, like, his name was in there and I took a photo and I Snapchatted it to him and I told him, ‘it just feels so different, you know?’
“He even said to me: ‘it’s your time now’ and I didn’t even know what that meant, honestly, but yeah, that’s all I remember he said to me.”
