The Will Jordan play that highlights his rugby IQ
After 20 minutes of next to no possession or territory, it looked like the Crusaders’ defensive wall was about to break.
Just a quarter of the way into the Super Rugby Pacific semi-final, the Crusaders were leading 6-0 after banking two penalties through the boot of Richie Mo’unga, but the Chiefs had been hammering away inside the home side’s 22 for phase after phase and a score looked inevitable.
The Crusaders had been pinged multiple times – including back-to-back scrum penalties – and the Chiefs appeared to be slowly tiring out their opposition. Number 8 Pita Gus Sowakula had come within inches of scoring, getting himself over the line but losing the ball in the contact, and most Crusaders fans would have consigned themselves to the fact that the Chiefs were about to take the lead – or come within a conversion of doing so.
But then things unravelled for the travelling side.
Having opted to take another scrum with a one-man advantage after Pablo Matera was sin-binned for repeated infringements, the Chiefs struggled to generate any go-forward. From the ensuing ruck, Brad Weber spun the ball out to Bryn Gatland and in the face of some rushing defence (that looked to have crept well past the offside line), a dodgy pass was delivered to Alex Nankivell, who couldn’t quite get hold of the ball.
The ball hit the turf, was picked up by Crusaders fly-half Richie Mo’unga and delivered out to Sevu Reece – who wisely punted it down the field.
Will Jordan hared after the ball, which bounced deep into the 22, and while he wasn’t able to get to it first, he was in the perfect position to tackle Weber, who’d managed to get back in defence.
Many defenders in that situation would make the cardinal mistake of simply flopping on the player on the ground and conceding a penalty but Jordan did no such thing, instead simply forcing Weber over the try line and earning his team a five-metre scrum.
It was a massive turnaround in territory, with the Crusaders going from being on the defence just out from their own line to suddenly having possession in the perfect position.
While the Chiefs hadn’t been able to score from their many, many scrums, the Crusaders had no such issues, with Cullen Grace popping off the back, getting to within an arm’s reach of the line and simply reaching out and placing the ball down for the try.
The Crusaders may have already held the lead at the stage but all the momentum had been with the visitors to Christchurch, who were looking to end a run of 26 straight victories for the Crusaders in home knock-out matches.
The old saying goes that defence wins championships and the Crusaders certainly showed that in spades on Friday night. From the moment of the small mistake made by the Chiefs, every Crusader – Mo’unga, Reece and especially Jordan played their roles to perfection to set up the Crusaders’ second try of the night and hand the home team an unassailable lead.
Jordan’s smarts will have been noted by All Blacks selectors Ian Foster and co with the 24-year-old vying with Jordie Barrett for the starting fullback spot in the national squad, and Jordan will have done himself the world of good with his composed display.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments