It’s pretty illustrious company. The World Cup semi-final between New Zealandand Argentina may come to be a contest best forgotten, but All Blacks wing Will Jordan will remember it as the night where he joined a group of try-scoring greats - and should have surpassed them.
With a hat-trick in Paris, Jordan became the fourth member of an exclusive club, in alongside Bryan Habana, Julian Savea and Jonah Lomu as the only men to have scored eight tries in a single tournament. With 31 tries in 30 Tests, it is a statistical probability that the All Black takes the record outright in the final.
Had Richie Mo’unga elected to pass rather than dummy, Jordan would already have it. Late on at the Stade de France, the game long since decided and New Zealand electing to play with 14 men in a show of their superiority, Jordan was had clear run ahead of him with the Argentina defence narrowed. Jordan bellowed for the ball; his fly half ignored him, going it alone in search of a try of his own to leave Jordan left with arms and mouth agape.
It was about the only foot that Mo’unga put wrong in a performance of all-round excellence from the All Blacks. The win may have been built on forward might but there is no doubt that a diverse, dynamic back three caught the eye. The trio of Mark Tele’a, Beauden Barrett and Jordan possess complementary skillsets, equally adept under the high ball but with contrasting qualities with ball in hand.
“Their combination has worked well from the start of the year,” said head coach Ian Foster of his back three. “We put a bit of time into that from the start of the Rugby Championship.
“Mark [Tele’a] was strong in the close-quarter areas. It was that sort of game and he enjoys being in close. He defended really well. I thought Will [Jordan] showed how good he is at finishing things off.
Will Jordan ran in a hat-trick with New Zealand rampant in Paris— (PA Wire)
“I am delighted with the combination [Jordan and Tele’a] have, and then you have Beauden [Barrett] who is the glue in between them. He’s the communicator who connects the dots. They are going good – but they are going to need to in the final.”
Indeed, the remarkable thing is that Jordan seems somewhat unremarkable. There are plenty of other wings in the world with more obvious physical gifts but the 25-year-old, by contrast, possesses an almost ineffable sense of grace, an ability to simply glide like Fred Astaire. While some of the game’s great try-scorers rely on hugging the touchline or picking their moment, Jordan is far from simply a poacher, often stepping in as a playmaker in New Zealand’s protean backline.
“Without the ball, he works so hard,” explained Argentina wing Mateo Carreras, generous in his praise of his opponent even in the moments after defeat. “He’s everywhere on the pitch. If there is a line-break, he’s there. If there is a knock-on, he is there. That’s why he is top class.”
In truth, two of Jordan’s three semi-final tries were walk-ins – they all count equally. The third, though, more than made up for the simplicity of the first two scores, a magnificent thing that began on the edge of New Zealand’s 22. Jordan hit the line at the right time to take Ardie Savea’s inside pop and then carving like a speed-skater through the Argentina defence.
Having slowed to consider the landscape ahead of him, Jordan found the space, a clever use of the outside of his boot to nudge the ball over the final defender and get the desired spin to allow an uncontested collection and finish the job. Try number 31 – of male players, only Japan’s Daisuke Ohata, against largely inferior opposition, has ever got more in their first 30 international appearances.
Look at the list of the top career try tallies for the All Blacks, a ladder Jordan is rapidly climbing, and a rough pattern emerges: wings making a fast-scoring start to their Test career before fading quicker than in other countries. In New Zealand, there will always be a next big thing on the wing, an athlete or an artist ready to step up and step in to the try scoring breach.
Savea, for example, scored 45 tries in 54 games before being dropped after Rieko Ioane’s emergence at the age of 27. He has not played for his country in the six years since. Sitiveni Sivivatu befell a similar fate; Joe Rokocoko did not play internationally past his 30th birthday. Even Ioane has been forced to relocate and rebuild, now starring in the centres.
The All Blacks back three (Mark Telea, Will Jordan and Beauden Barrett) ran riot in Paris— (Getty Images)
Jordan’s success, though, feels sustainable. He is doing all this away from his favoured position – the Crusader is a full-back at heart. The 15 jersey will be his in time: the eldest Barrett brother is bound for Japan after this tournament, and Jordan will surely slide over to continue to chase down Doug Howlett’s All Black record total of 49 tries.
But that pursuit can wait for another day. New Zealand know not yet if it will be England or South Africa in the final but they will feel it will matter not if they sustain the level they’ve found in this last two weeks. “This is the dream, to be in the dance, to make the final and give ourselves an opportunity,” said scum half Aaron Smith. “We’ve got a chance of winning the World Cup and that’s what you dream of as a rugby player."
