Rugby World Cup: All Blacks Will Jordan, Sam Whitelock hail a vital step forward

This was Will Jordan’s kind of game as the in-form All Blacks wing rattled up fantasy team-type numbers against the hapless Italians in Lyon on Saturday (NZT).

It was also just the launching pad the All Blacks required after the Rugby World Cup threatened to almost pass them by following a frustrating first three weeks of pool play in France. A 14-try expression of intent in a 96-17 victory over supposedly an “improving” Italian outfit ticked most of the boxes on an important night in their base city for the New Zealanders.

Jordan, naturally, was satisfied with his own game. He scored two quality tries – an acrobatic finish in the corner off Beauden Barrett’s crosskick, and then a fabulous finish of a surging move cooked up by him and skipper Ardie Savea – and stuffed the statsheet. He ran for a game-high 135 metres, had 4 clean breaks, 4 offloads and slipped one tackle in a quality 8src minutes’ work.

A lot of Kiwis want him to play fullback, but there is no doubting he remains a world-class wing while he awaits that opportunity.

More importantly, as Jordan was happy to attest afterwards, the All Blacks announced to, not only 57,src83 people at the fabulous OL Stadium, but the entire rugby world, that they’re well and truly back in contention at the pointy end of this global event. That opening-round defeat to France is now fading into the ether.

Jordan had no hesitation in calling this outstanding performance, mixing withering intent up