The rarest of the rare: An All Blacks bolter?
The All Blacks and the term ‘bolter’ are two things which don’t often go together in a Rugby World Cup year.
For a number of reasons, New Zealand rugby is often not in a place to accommodate a bolter late in a RWC cycle. Their succession planning position-by-position tends to be world leading and they do a good job of integrating emerging players earlier in a cycle and getting them test match experience. They then look after the workload of their players in a RWC year as well as, if not better, than anyone else, ensuring they tend to have a healthy and fresh squad come the beginning of the tournament.
Throw into the mix that they are only picking players from five Super Rugby franchises, rather than the 12 or 14 clubs that the English and French do respectively, and it’s understandable that there aren’t too many last-minute additions to the All Blacks in the run-up to the quadrennial tournament.
Nehe Milner-Skudder was one to buck this trend in 2015, featuring only in back-to-back Bledisloe Cup games before going on to star at the RWC in England, whilst Waisake Naholo also warranted a call-up with just one game for New Zealand under his belt at that time.
Brendon Leonard was relatively new to the set-up in 2007, before he went on to deputise for Byron Kelleher in France, but that was largely as a result of Piri Weepu’s exclusion following some off-field issues during the then Tri Nations.
The examples are few and far between over the last three RWCs and that’s an acknowledgement of how well New Zealand have adapted to the professional era, their talent identification and their ability to plan successfully for these showpiece tournaments, particularly after the hard lessons they learned between 1991 and 2003.
That all said, it’s clearly not impossible to break your way into an international side with just months to go, even one as adept and consistent as the All Blacks, and one player putting up his hand for what many would of thought an unlikely opportunity earlier this year, is Will Jordan.
The 21-year-old has been on a trajectory that leads to the All Blacks for a few years now, but when a head injury suffered for Tasman raised concussion fears – something which ultimately proved to be an inner-ear issue – it saw him miss out on the 2018 Super Rugby season with the Crusaders.
He had just lit up the World Rugby U20 Championship in 2017, helping guide New Zealand to an emphatic 64-17 victory over England in the final, and there were expectations that he would translate that ability to Super Rugby in 2018. Plenty of his international teammates did just that, with Luke Jacobson, Braydon Ennor and Dalton Papali’i among those that impressed at the next level, whilst opportunities also came for Caleb Clarke, Stephen Perofeta, Orbyn Leger and Isaia Walker-Leawere.
Tasman, the Crusaders and New Zealand rugby, quite rightfully, played it cautiously with Jordan, however, meaning he was sidelined as those players began to forge a name for themselves in Super Rugby, with Papali’i even going on to make his senior international debut.
Good things come to those who wait, though, and 2019 has seen Jordan finally explode onto the global scene.
His eight tries in the competition are tied for the most with Rieko Ioane and Jack Maddocks, and have come in just seven appearances. Even more impressively, they’ve come in just 348 minutes of rugby, compared to the 576 minutes of Ioane and the 514 minutes of Maddocks.
This explosive output has been backed up by the RPI, with one of the steepest improvements since the index was created, as Jordan’s value has risen from 56 at the beginning of the season to 82 at the time of writing. Like Ennor before him, he is making himself an integral member of the most effective side in Super Rugby.
The long-term injury issues suffered by Israel Dagg and his recent retirement have obviously created opportunities for Jordan with the Crusaders, but it’s not just as a full-back that he has impressed. He has shown that not only can he control a game and provide a counter-attacking threat in the 15 jersey, he can also finish and track play on the wing as well as anyone. It’s the same kind of back three versatility that Milner-Skudder offered the All Blacks in the build-up to the 2015 RWC.
He is, to be fair, playing in a very good Crusaders side that have a habit of making players look impressive and that is worth taking into consideration when comparing his output with that of Ioane and Maddocks, but it’s the same kind of environment that he would be enjoying with the All Blacks, should they come calling this year.
A call, perhaps, that has been made more likely by the ACL injury suffered by Damian McKenzie.
McKenzie has floated between fly-half and full-back over the last couple of seasons, albeit with most of his appearances for the All Blacks coming at 15, and his absence potentially creates a void within the squad, with Ioane, Jordie Barrett and Ben Smith all used on the wing in recent games. If Steve Hansen is comfortable with J Barrett picking up the slack at 10 in training should there be any minor knocks to older brother Beauden Barrett or Richie Mo’unga, could the versatile Jordan be the man to make a late push for RWC selection?
There is no like-for-like replacement for McKenzie, in terms of a hybrid fly-half/full-back, whilst the drop-off after the trio of he, B Barrett and Mo’unga in New Zealand’s stock of fly-halves is notable. Alternatively, Jordan would represent a plug and play option in the back three that would free up J Barrett, Smith, Ioane and Naholo to play wherever Hansen deems them most effective.
After the setbacks of 2018, it seemed as if Jordan would have to wait until after the RWC for another opportunity to don the silver fern, but with his play for the Crusaders proving to be as effective as it is, combined with valuable versatility in a tournament that has short turnarounds and limited squad size, things seem as if they are aligning for Jordan to be that rarest of things, an All Blacks bolter.
There are eight games left in the Crusaders’ regular season, plus a very likely playoff run, for Jordan to continue to impress in the free-flowing way he has with the franchise, but if he is to genuinely make a run at the RWC, he will need to show his ability to manage a game and cope with the physicality of international rugby.
A condensed Rugby Championship kicks off in July, with the All Blacks taking on Argentina in Buenos Aires and South Africa in Wellington, before back-to-back fixtures with Australia. Chances are that Jordan will need to be involved in this series if he is to have a real shot at featuring in the RWC warm-up game against Tonga and making it to Japan later this year.
He wasn’t one of the 16 backs selected for a training camp in Wellington this week, but with McKenzie now set to miss the RWC, Jordan could be hot on the heels of the current incumbents as Hansen begins to finalise his plans for the tournament.
To break into a group that also features franchise teammate George Bridge, in addition to all those other names already mentioned, is no mean feat, but it is one that Jordan, week on week, is looking increasingly capable of achieving.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Who's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
72 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
32 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
32 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
72 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
32 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
4 Go to comments