Will Jordan needed just 56 Tests to rewrite a record that had stood for close to two decades. The New Zealand wing scored a second-half hat-trick in Wellington on Saturday to move past Doug Howlett as the All Blacks' all-time leading Test try-scorer, reaching 50 tries as Dave Rennie's side wore down a stubborn Italy 47-17 in the Nations Championship.
Howlett had held the mark of 49 since his final Test in 2007. Jordan got to 50 in 56 appearances — Howlett needed 62 — at a strike rate of roughly a try a game across six seasons. His scores, in the 48th, 55th and 58th minutes, also cracked open a contest Italy had led 14-10 at the interval.
"Yeah, it is phenomenal, isn't it?" Rennie said of his record-breaker. "He's got genuine gas, so someone makes a little bit of a break and he ends up on their shoulder. He was high quality all over the park tonight."
For an hour, this was not the procession the final score suggests. Italy were organised, aggressive and comfortable in possession, carrying the game to New Zealand and leading at the break as their defence piled up more than 200 tackles. Tommaso Menoncello scored the opening try and was, in Planet Rugby's assessment, "world-class on both sides of the ball."
Rennie did not dodge the sluggish start. "It was a bit messy," he said. "I thought we played probably 20 minutes of really clinical footy and we had them on the ropes a number of times. It's a pass, but we left a lot of points out there."
He pinpointed the half-time reset as the turning point. "When the Italians are full of energy they're going to get a wall in front of us, so we needed to be direct with skill," Rennie said. "After half-time we just talked about being really assertive, being really aggressive at the breakdown." New Zealand outscored Italy 31-7 after the interval and finished with 577 running metres to the visitors' 222.
The night tilted further in New Zealand's favour on 50 minutes, when Italy lock Niccolo Cannone was sent off — his yellow card upgraded to red for head contact on scrum-half Cam Roigard at a ruck. The call was not universally accepted. Planet Rugby noted Cannone "was being held in the ruck, the contact came as he attempted to release himself," and that a "high degree of danger" finding "sat oddly alongside a scrum-half who barely noticed the collision." Cannone now faces a disciplinary hearing that could end his tournament.
The milestone aside, not everyone was convinced the display travels. In the New Zealand Herald, Liam Napier wrote that "cohesion and executing clinical skills remain a work in progress," warning that "one quality third-quarter blitz won't mask other flaws" and that the All Blacks must "take another leap" before facing Ireland at Eden Park next week.
Rennie, two from two to open his tenure, agrees the examination is about to get harder. "It's going to be massive. A great side, very well coached," he said of Ireland. "We're going to need to be better than we were tonight, but excited by the challenge."
There was encouragement in the debuts, too. Rennie singled out Josh Moorby, who had a hand in a couple of tries off the bench: "He's such a good footballer. His ability to understand where to be, anticipate, get himself in position to take a pass and give a pass." For one night, though, the story belonged to Jordan — the "understated superstar," as Planet Rugby put it, who has quietly become the most prolific finisher in All Blacks history.
