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The Will Jordan play that highlights his rugby IQ
By Sam Smith
After 20 minutes of next to no possession or territory, it looked like the Crusaders’ defensive wall was about to break.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
