Bernard Jackman believes Will Jordan could be the weak link in the New Zealand defence that Ireland should look to expose on Friday.
The sides meet at Aviva Stadium at 8.10pm on Friday night (live on RTÉ Radio 1), in a repeat of last year's World Cup quarter-final, which was won 28-24 by New Zealand.
Jordan has been the game’s most lethal tryscorer since he made his All Blacks debut in 2020, and he's now crossed the line 36 times in just 38 games of Test rugby, the latest of which came in last week’s 24-22 win against England.
Prior to this season, almost all of his international appearances had come on the wing, but this season he has been consistently used in the 15 shirt by new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson, who preferred Jordan at full-back during their time together at the Crusaders.
But after studying the 26-year-old's performances this season, Jackman believes it’s an area of the game Andy Farrell can exploit on Friday.
"The backfield is going to be a little bit more open. Do you know who is really poor in the backfield, is Will Jordan," Jackman told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.
🗣️ "His positioning is really, really, really poor...."
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Will Jordan is frightening with the ball in hand, but @bernardjackman believes Ireland can expose him in the NZ backfield on Friday night. ☘️🇳🇿
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"His positioning is really, really, really poor. I’d been looking back at some games from the behind the posts footage, and I’ve seen teams try exploit him.
"He’s a bit all over the place. I don’t know if it’s his concentration level or he doesn’t understand his role or he’s a bit lazy, but he’s not covering the ground and space he should be. And I would be shocked if Ireland don't try exploit that.
"Do you remember the try [Jacob] Stockdale scored with the late sweep [in 2018], it will be off set-piece [like that], where most of our set-piece plays tend to be two or three phases and keep the ball in hand, there may be some element of trying to exploit him in the backfield, through kicking."
Jackman was quick to stress that his criticism of Jordan is strictly limited to his work in the backfield, noting how lethal the Crusaders man is in possession. Jordan has scored a try in all four of his games against Ireland.
The @AllBlacks took time out to visit @cymrugby as the Dublin club celebrates its 100th anniversary. Ardie Savea spoke to #RTESport about the importance of grassroots rugby and #IREvNZL #RTERugby pic.twitter.com/RqynEbH43I
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"He can exploit his lack of positioning through running, but I think it’s an area we could potentially profit from.
"Again, you want him to be stressed defending because you don't want him having the ball in his hand running at you.
"We’ve fallen on our sword there already because he’s amazing with the ball.
"Definitely as a full-back, his positioning is very unorthodox, compared to other international full-backs, and I think that creates an opportunity that Ireland, I will imagine try to exploit.
"He’s a ridiculously good player, I’m being very, very hard on him there, but if there’s one weakness in his game it’s that," he added.
Looking at Ireland’s selection, Jackman is concerned about Ireland’s continued reliance on Cian Healy to support Andrew Porter at loosehead.
The Leinster veteran is set to earn his 132nd cap this Friday – one short of Brian O’Driscoll’s all-time record – and Jackman believes it’s a real worry how reliant Ireland still are on the Leinster pair.
"It’s actually scary how unobvious it is who is next up [at loosehead]
"It’s incredibly worrying. If anything was to happen to Andrew Porter in the first five minutes tomorrow, that’s asking a huge amount for Cian Healy, to go 75 minutes.
"Cian will do it and he won't let you down, but a scrum that's tiring and doesn't have the ability to bring on fresh power could cost you the game and that’s the reality of it.
"England’s scrum effectively cost them the game last weekend when they didn't have the same level of impact off the bench as the Kiwis did and it caused the issue with the dropgoal at the end."
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