Will Jordan: from a small Boys' High halfback to the All Blacks' record try-scorer

On a sold-out night in Wellington on 11 July 2026, a Christchurch wing who played halfback at school because he was small took a long pass from Jordie Barrett, beat the last Italian defender and scored his 50th Test try. Will Jordan had passed Doug Howlett's All Blacks record of 49, which had stood since 2007, and he had done it in 56 Tests, six fewer than Howlett needed. By the end of the Bledisloe Cup in October he had 56 tries in 63 Tests, and he heads into the Nations Championship tour of Scotland, Wales and England as the leading try-scorer in the history of New Zealand Test rugby.

Where he comes from

William Thomas Jordan was born in Christchurch on 24 February 1998 and went to Fendalton Open Air School and Cobham Intermediate. He started playing rugby at five or six, "as soon as I could", he told Rugby World in 2020, for the High School Old Boys club. For a long time it was not his main sport. Jordan was a keen cricketer, mostly a batsman, and played rep cricket for Canterbury; by his own account he took cricket more seriously than rugby until his last year at school.

Like a lot of Christchurch boys, he looked up to Dan Carter, and later, once he was playing fullback, to Israel Dagg, whom he would eventually train beside at the Crusaders. Asked in 2026 to name his role models, he chose Sam Whitelock on the field and his father off it.

Christchurch Boys' High School

Jordan arrived at Christchurch Boys' High School small enough that he spent three or four years playing halfback. A growth spurt in Year 12 changed that, and in Year 13, in 2015, he made the First XV at fullback. He scored 19 tries in 11 games that season and finished as the leading try-scorer in the UC Championship, and the Crusaders Academy took notice. Among his school team-mates were Alex Nankivell and Blair Prinsep, who would later play alongside him for Tasman. RUGBE found no published record of a New Zealand Schools selection.

He enrolled at the University of Canterbury in 2016, starting out in law before rugby made a full timetable impossible, and played for Canterbury Under 19 that year. Tasman approached him after the national Under 19 tournament in Taupo and signed him on a two-year deal that October.

World champion at 19

In 2017 Jordan was picked for New Zealand Under 20 and went to the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Georgia. He started all five games and scored five tries, three of them in the 69-3 pool win over Ireland. He tweaked a hamstring in the 39-26 semi-final win over France and was in doubt for the final, but played all 80 minutes at fullback as New Zealand beat England 64-17 in Tbilisi. "I guess the U20s was the start of my rugby journey," he said three years later. Before then, he said, he had not thought of rugby as a real job.

Tasman

A month later he was in Nelson. Jordan made his provincial debut for the Tasman Mako in the first round of the 2017 Mitre 10 Cup, against Canterbury at Trafalgar Park, and scored six tries in his first season. "I've got to earn my spot," he had said before arriving, with the Crusaders fullback David Havili in the same squad.

His biggest day in Tasman colours came on 26 October 2019 in Nelson. He scored twice from the wing in the 31-14 win over Wellington in the Premiership final, Tasman's first national title, and finished the season with seven tries, joint fifth in the competition. To October 2026 he had played 34 games for the province and scored 110 points.

The Crusaders, and a year lost to his balance

The Crusaders signed him for 2018, but he did not play that year. An inner-ear problem left him with blurred vision and balance trouble that was hard to diagnose; concussion and neck problems were both considered first. "It took around seven or eight months for it to come right," he said in a 2020 All Blacks video. He made his Super Rugby debut in 2019, became Crusader number 231, and came off the bench in the 72nd minute of the final as the Crusaders beat the Jaguares 19-3 in Christchurch for their third title in a row.

A groin injury against the Blues in February 2020 would have kept him out for weeks, but Covid stopped the competition. "The lockdown was a blessing in disguise," he told Rugby World, because he did not have to rush his rehabilitation. When Super Rugby Aotearoa started in June he led the competition in tries, defenders beaten and metres gained, and the Crusaders won it. He scored twice for the South Island in the North v South match later that year.

He scored in the 2021 Aotearoa final, a 24-13 win over the Chiefs in which he played every minute, and again in the 2022 final, a 21-7 win over the Blues at Eden Park that he named in 2026 as his favourite Crusaders memory. He was fullback in the 2023 final win over the Chiefs in Hamilton and again in the 16-12 win over the Chiefs in Christchurch in 2025. Wikipedia credits him with six Crusaders titles across 2019 to 2025, and 245 points in 73 games to October 2026.

The All Blacks: two tries in two minutes, then five

Ian Foster called him into the All Blacks for the 2020 Rugby Championship, and he made his debut off the bench in the final Bledisloe Test of the year in Brisbane on 7 November 2020, a 24-22 loss. His second Test, against Argentina in Newcastle three weeks later, also came from the bench, and he scored two tries in two minutes in a 38-0 win.

His first Test start came on 3 July 2021, against Tonga at Mount Smart Stadium, and he scored five tries in a 102-0 win. Only Marc Ellis, with six against Japan at the 1995 World Cup, has scored more in a Test for New Zealand; Jeff Wilson also scored five, against Fiji in 1997. Jordan kept going: three against the United States in Washington, tries in Perth, Townsville, Cardiff and Dublin, and 15 tries in 11 Tests for the year. On RUGBE's records only Joe Rokocoko, with 17 in 2003, has scored more Test tries for New Zealand in a calendar year, and only Rokocoko reached 15 Test tries in fewer matches, nine to Jordan's ten. At the end of 2021 World Rugby named him its Breakthrough Player of the Year.

Vertigo, then a World Cup

In 2022 Jordan scored in both of the series losses to Ireland and in both Bledisloe Tests, the last of them in the 40-14 win at Eden Park in September. It was his last game for more than seven months, and his last Test for almost ten. An inner-ear vestibular condition, which can cause vertigo, dizziness and nausea and was later described as migraine-related, ruled him out of the northern tour and the first nine rounds of the 2023 Super Rugby season. He had been close to returning a few weeks earlier, until his symptoms came back. "It's been a big six months for Will," Crusaders coach Scott Robertson said when Jordan was finally named against the Force in May.

He returned to Test rugby against South Africa in Auckland on 15 July 2023 and scored in a 35-20 win. At the World Cup in France he was yellow-carded in the opening loss to the hosts, then scored twice against Italy and twice against Uruguay. He scored in the 28-24 quarter-final win over Ireland, which he later called his favourite All Blacks memory, and scored a hat-trick in the 44-6 semi-final win over Argentina at the Stade de France. The All Blacks lost the final to South Africa 12-11. Jordan's eight tries made him the tournament's top try-scorer, two ahead of France's Damian Penaud, and equalled the record for a single World Cup shared by Jonah Lomu, Bryan Habana and Julian Savea.

In May 2023 he had re-signed with New Zealand Rugby and the Crusaders for four years, to the end of 2027. "Will is a quality person first and foremost," Foster said in the announcement, and Robertson called his timing "on and off the ball" world class.

Shoulder surgery and a move to fullback

A shoulder injury from 2023 caught up with him in February 2024. After a period of conservative management the Crusaders announced he needed surgery, and he missed the whole Super Rugby season and the July Tests against England and Fiji. He came back off the bench against Argentina in Wellington on 10 August 2024, and from the second Test in South Africa, in Cape Town on 7 September, Robertson started him at fullback. He wore 15 for most of the next 14 months, scoring against Australia in Sydney and Wellington, England at Twickenham, Ireland in Dublin and Italy in Turin.

Back with the Crusaders in 2025, he made the line break that set up one of Kyle Preston's three tries in his first game, a 33-25 win over the Hurricanes in February. "That's why he's one of the best in the world," said coach Rob Penney. "We missed him terribly last year." Two tries against France in Dunedin on 5 July 2025 took him to 40 Test tries in his 42nd Test; no All Black on RUGBE's records had reached 40 in fewer. By the end of the 2025 Rugby Championship he had 43 tries in 50 Tests, and he finished the year with 45.

2026: the record

The 2026 season began with injury. A calf injury kept Jordan out of the Crusaders for six weeks, and in his first game back, a 36-32 win over the Chiefs on 22 May, he strained it again. "Will's so influential for us," Penney said. The Crusaders confirmed four days later that his Super Rugby season was over, with Dave Rennie's first All Blacks Test about five weeks away.

He made it. Rennie picked him on the right wing, and in the 34-32 win over France in Christchurch on 4 July he scored in each half, the second in the 70th minute, to reach 47 Test tries and move past the 46 of Christian Cullen, Joe Rokocoko and Julian Savea. He and Beauden Barrett had both started the year on 45.

A week later in Wellington, in front of a sell-out crowd of more than 33,000, he scored the three tries he needed. The first came on the half-hour, from an inside pass by Leroy Carter after a Jordie Barrett kick. The other two came minutes apart in the third quarter. Debutant Josh Moorby's pass drew him level with Howlett, and then Ruben Love took a quick tap penalty, Barrett threw a long pass, and Jordan had one man to beat. The All Blacks won 47-17. "It's hugely humbling," Jordan said, remembering himself as a kid "practising my chip and chase in the back yard". Captain Ardie Savea put it in five words: "Special people do special things."

He kept scoring. He crossed against Ireland at Eden Park, twice in the 33-16 win over South Africa in Johannesburg, then in the losses in Johannesburg and Baltimore as the Springboks took the series 3-1, and once more in the 50-19 Bledisloe win at Eden Park in October for his 56th Test try. He has started all nine Tests of 2026 on the right wing and scored 11 tries, the second-highest tally of his career after 2021.

Style and standing

Jordan's own description of his game, given to Rugby World as a 22-year-old, was "an attacking mindset" built on his running, with a willingness to contest high balls; the work-ons he named were his kicking and positional play. The coaches who have picked him talk about anticipation. Robertson, in 2023: "he can kick and run and read a game and anticipate things." Penney, in 2025, called him "a bit of a unique freak in a number of areas", a player who makes the people around him better. The NZ Rugby Museum's profile on allblacks.com describes him as "a cornerstone of the All Blacks attack".

Howlett's 49 tries came in 62 Tests; Jordan reached 50 in 56. His 56 tries from 63 Tests is a rate of 0.89 a Test. Awards: World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year in 2021.

Off the field

Jordan finished a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Canterbury in 2025, nine years after he enrolled, much of it studied part-time on planes and in hotel rooms. "To be able to persevere through that" is something he is proud of, he told Metropol magazine. He is an ambassador for Youth Hub Christchurch, a housing and support centre for young people, and pledges $1000 for every Super Rugby try he scores; in 2025 that came to $9000 from nine tries. "Being able to make a difference in my hometown is key to me," he said. He played in the Black Clash charity cricket match at Hagley Oval in January 2021, hitting 49 from 29 balls for Team Rugby, and lists golf as his way of switching off.

Where he is now

Jordan, 28, is with the All Blacks in Edinburgh for the first Test of the Nations Championship tour against Scotland on Sunday morning New Zealand time, followed by Wales in Cardiff and England at Twickenham, under tour captain Codie Taylor. He is contracted to New Zealand Rugby and the Crusaders to the end of 2027 and is in the Crusaders' squad for next season, which leads into the World Cup in Australia.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data to 17 October 2026. Club and provincial figures are from Wikipedia, updated October 2026.