A New Zealand star has been ruled out of selection contention for the Australia and New Zealand Invitational XV’s match against the British & Irish Lions in Adelaide on 12 July.
Richie Mo’unga, who had expressed his desire to play in the fixture, suffered a broken hand while playing for his Japanese club, Toshiba Brave Lupus. According to stuff.co.nz, the All Blacks flyhalf has withdrawn from talks with Rugby Australia about playing in the game.
“I miss the big Test match setting, the big arenas, this [game] will be the closest I’ll get to it while I’m in Japan,” Mo’unga had previously told rugbyjp.com.
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This follows former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper’s revelation that he had turned down an invitation to represent the Australian-New Zealand XV.
“I would have loved to have seen it be an Australian-New Zealand Barbarians team,” he said on Stan Sport’s Inside Line. “The trouble is trying to make it all work.
“I mentioned around the length and the layover between games for some people, some guys are coming to the back end of the season.
“Maybe they don’t want to keep training for another eight weeks because it’s going to be a daunting task [to face the Lions].”
Lions 2025 schedule:
Saturday 28 June: vs Western Force, Optus Stadium, Perth
Wednesday 2 July: vs Queensland Reds, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Saturday 5 July: vs New South Wales Waratahs, Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Wednesday 9 July: vs ACT Brumbies, GIO Stadium, Canberra
Saturday 12 July: vs Invitational Australian and New Zealand XV, Adelaide Oval
Saturday 19 July: vs Wallabies, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Tuesday 22 July: vs Melbourne Rebels, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Saturday 26 July: vs Wallabies, Melbourne Cricket Ground
Saturday 2 August: vs Wallabies, Stadium Australia, Sydney
Photo: Toru Hanai/Getty Images
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