Wellington
Will Jordan put his hand up for Test selection with two tries, including the match winner, in a pseudo All Blacks trial played under the guise of a North Island versus South match in Wellington Saturday.
With Covid-19 restrictions forcing the match to be played in an empty stadium, the South prevailed 38-35. In a rugby-obsessed country starved of international competition due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was performance not points that mattered most with a 35-man All Blacks squad to be named Sunday.
The clash was played at a frantic pace and produced 10 tries with the lead changing seven times.
The duel between rival fly-halves Richie Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett was expected to headline the match but it was the uncapped Crusaders utility Jordan who made the biggest statement.
Jordan, the leading try-scorer in New Zealand’s Super Rugby competition this year, had a quiet first half but made his mark in the second with a 70-metre try at the three-quarter mark and with time on the clock, and the North ahead 35-31, he latched on to a Josh Ioane crosskick to seal the game for the South.
Rieko Ioane, once hailed as a wonder wing with a phenomenal try-scoring record until dropping out of the limelight last year, has reinvented himself as an outside centre and also scored two well-taken tries for the North.—AFP
