Will Jordan: 'I don't think any of us were expecting that kind of scoreline'

A statement win to the tune of 96-17 has propelled the All Blacks back into dangerous form with one round remaining before the knockout stages commence in France.

The All Blacks must defeat final Pool A opponents Uruguay to book their place in the quarter-finals, where they are on track to face the winner of the highly competitive Pool B.

A total of 14 tries were scored by the All Blacks who were clearly hell-bent on proving they are still one of the tournament’s top contenders despite a number of poor results in recent months.

The Azzuri, like many spectators of those All Blacks losses, witnessed some vulnerability within New Zealand’s gameplan be exposed and sniffed a chance to create some history of their own.

Just five minutes into the game though, winger Will Jordan dotted down in the corner courtesy of a cross-field kick from Jordie Barrett. It was just the beginning of an onslaught from the three-time World Champions that had the game well and truly decided before halftime.

“Obviously just getting the result was crucial to us,” Jordan told the press after the match. “It was definitely a knockout game so we knew we needed to front.

“I don’t think any of us were expecting that kind of scoreline to be fair. It just shows, when you get off to a good start and we have a good couple of weeks training like we have had, then you can come out with a good performance.

“I think we’ll take a lot of confidence from it, and it’s a good marker going forward.”

A hat trick to halfback Aaron Smith was overlooked for man of the match performance in favour of captain Ardie Savea, who crossed the line twice himself.

It was a fitting gesture as what had been a struggling forward pack buried the demons of recent outings and dominated the Italian pack.

Jordan was twice the benefactor of a superior platform and credited the work of his forwards for the result.

“It’s huge, footy can be a pretty simple game when you’re going forward and the boys set a really good platform tonight, both at set piece and just in general around the park.

“I thought defensively we were really strong in the tight stuff tonight, I saw a lot of dominant tackles, which allowed go forward, get ruck turnovers, and when we got turnover ball was when we really started to turn it on.

“Obviously, set piece is huge and I thought it was a great shift there tonight.

“Particularly in the second half, you see offloads sticking and support play really ramping up when guys get excited, so those are key parts of our game. But I thought our fundamentals around set piece, collisions and that was really good as well.

“It was a nice result tonight and good to see a couple of things we worked on, particularly last week come to fruition.”

It was reported as an intense and confrontational bye week for the All Blacks, who didn’t just visit Bordeaux for the wine. Huge emphasis was put on the forward pack after losses to South Africa and France.

Forwards coach Jason Ryan was seen throughout the contest celebrating with an almighty grin on his face, particularly when 36-year-old hooker Dane Coles scored the first of his two tries off a superbly executed lineout move.

Will Jordan again recognised the scoreline was well beyond what was expected of the match given the attacking threats the Italians possess.

“It was definitely how we wanted to play, I’m not sure if it’s exactly how we pictured it but we knew that their attack shape with all their guys swinging around would challenge us, and we saw that a lot but I thought we handled that pretty well.

“In attack, it was just about the breakdown being huge and like we touched on, the quick ball allowed you to flow into it.

“It was a real defence focus for us first against their attacking shape and then the attack side of it came off a good platform and that turnover ball.”