Crusaders flyhalf Richie Mo'unga has taken to social media to explain a breach in team protocol during the coronavirus lockdown.
This comes after reports out of New Zealand suggested that a number of Crusaders players, Mo'unga included, had been seen conducting a light training session at a park despite New Zealand, like many countries around the world, being placed on complete lockdown.
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The Crusaders later confirmed that it was not a formal training session.
Now, Mo'unga has explained his side of the story in a post to his Instagram account.
"I just want to speak about what happened and clear a few things up," he said.
"I want to start off by saying this was not an organised training. There were no communications beforehand saying that we should train in this park together. It was by coincidence that I rocked up and they were there training.
"In fact, they were there just finishing up their session. My local park is that local park and our training schedules are the same so we run on the same days. It just so happened to be it was the same time.
"As I arrived I [talked] to the boys from afar, asking how they were and got ready for my running session. As I had finished one of my running sessions, the ball had been kicked over and instinctively I went and picked the ball up and threw it back to them.
"I will say that was the only interaction I had with them apart from talking to them. It was something that was so instinctive for me to do - to pick the ball up and throw it back to them. I didn't think twice about it. It was something that happened fast.
"It's something I need to be more careful of and I will be more careful of."
Richie Mo’unga apologises for incident with Crusaders teammates.
— Andrew Gourdie (@AndrewGourdie) April 6, 2020
He says it was “not an organised training”, “a coincidence”, and touching the ball was “instinctive”. pic.twitter.com/RKvOUUYKx4
