The Breakdown | Let gamechangers off the leash to grow game

14/07/2026 Let gamechangers Jordan, Pollock and Bielle-Biarrey off the leash to grow game

Robert Kitson   By any measure it is a remarkable achievement. While many have fantasised about how it might feel to score a try for the All Blacks, no one in history has now lived that dream more frequently than Will Jordan. At the weekend the New Zealand wing took his tally to 50 tries in only 56 appearances, overhauling Doug Howlett’s all-time national men’s record of 49 in 62 Tests. Perhaps the biggest compliment to pay Jordan is how relatively easy he makes it all look. Where others blow hot and cold, the 28-year-old glides around like a smooth, top-of-the-range sports car. A devastating little surge of electric acceleration here, exquisite running lines, world-class anticipation, deceptive pace … by the time defenders finally work out what he is doing it is usually too late. Because shooting stars like him are rare gems, it is tempting to assume that his extraordinary strike-rate of 0.9 tries per Test leaves everyone else in top-tier history for dead. Which it would do if Louis Bielle-Biarrey of Bordeaux-Bègles and France had not burst on to the scene. To date the French wing has 29 tries in his 27 Tests and registered another 64 in 97 club games for Bordeaux, impressive by anybody’s standards. As with Jordan there is much more to it than simply plonking the ball down over the whitewash. Bielle-Biarrey has almost single-handedly changed the game when it comes to his uncanny ability to chase down chips over the top and burn off even the most dependable of defenders. At just 23 he could theoretically have another decade in him at the top level, by which point his stats could be stratospheric. Louis Bielle-Biarrey has bagged 64 tries in 97 games for his club, including this one in the Champions Cup final in May. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho/Shutterstock And guess what? Their respective teams are increasingly basing their games around their respective supermen. Because aside from anything else the game is changing. Not so long ago wings might receive only a couple of passes per game because, well, that was just the way it was. Few had the wit or imagination to appreciate that the quickest players on the field – as opposed to the biggest and strongest – might be worth using more often. Of course rugby remains an uncompromisingly physical challenge but nothing discomforts defenders more than sheer pace. Bordeaux and France both have powerful athletes up front but these days they play – or kick – to width as a matter of routine. Why wouldn’t you when you have Bielle-Biarrey, Damian Penaud, Théo Attissogbe, Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, et al lurking with intent? New Zealand, likewise, would be crazy to underuse a finisher of Jordan’s quality. Which brings us, with a certain inevitability, to England and Henry Pollock. The 21-year-old is a back-row forward but his eye-catching acceleration earned him a hat-trick of tries at Fiji’s expense in Liverpool and would have impressed even Bielle-Biarrey. Never mind the ferry across the Mersey, it was like watching a jetski leaving everything else in its wake. It took Pollock’s international try tally to six in 311 minutes, which amounts to a try every 52 minutes or so. But in those dozen Tests he has started just once, at No 8 in a losing cause against Ireland in a back row including Tom Curry and Ben Earl. For all his obvious bench impact there remains a sense he is not yet entirely trusted to be “the man” from the outset. But why not? If you’re good enough you’re old enough, always assuming your destiny is being shaped by people prepared to subscribe to that maxim. Younger players are better prepared physically than they have ever been. Last Saturday it was once again abundantly clear that England have taken delivery of a generational talent. With the bleached hair, the try celebrations and the black headbands, it is even more obvious that he loves the limelight. Admittedly, he wasn’t nearly so prominent the previous week against South Africa at Ellis Park. But of course he wasn’t. By the time he touched the ball for the first time late in the third quarter, England had conceded five tries and the tone of the game had been set. Maybe Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese would have made merry regardless but it is reaching the point where not starting him reveals more about this England regime than it does the player himself. The smarter move would be to build the back five of the scrum around him, the better to maximise his talents. You could also argue that rugby more generally could do with him being properly unleashed. Who are the sport’s current guaranteed global box-office draws, aside from Bielle-Biarrey and Jordan? Siya Kolisi, Antoine Dupont, Ardie Savea, Matthieu Jalibert, Finn Russell, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Cheslin Kolbe all fit the bill but only three are aged under 30. Henry Pollock confirmed his status as England’s rising star with a hat-trick against Fiji. Photograph: Phil Bryan/Shutterstock A chance meeting at Heathrow airport on Sunday neatly summed up the game’s battle in that regard. Your correspondent was minding his own business outside Wagamama when a posse of England players wandered out of the restaurant. The lady next to me decided to request a photo with them and entrusted me with her cameraphone to take the picture. It was pretty clear, however, that she had little idea who they all were individually. Had they been in civvies rather than England gear, how many would she have recognised? Which is a question every marketeer and media prevention officer in rugby should ponder. Hopefully it will help that this month’s games are all being broadcast live by ITV. By this autumn, when they are trying to sell tickets to the Nations Championship finals weekend, the organisers would love it if Jordan, Bielle-Biarrey and Pollock were more widely recognisable. There is some serious gamechanging rugby talent out there if people are prepared to give it full rein.

Going straight Pretty much everything Rassie Erasmus does at the moment is paying off handsomely. Whatever team he selects, regardless of the number of frontline picks it contains, is winning Test matches, with South Africa’s sequence now up to 10 with Wales next up this weekend. The Baby Boks are into the final of the U20 World Cup after beating England 53-37 on Monday and his lobbying effort regarding tighter officiating of the maul also recently delivered the desired result. Next up? Erasmus wants the lawmakers to look afresh at making scrum put-ins straight again – there’s a Donald Trump slogan in there somewhere – and outlawing the deflating sight of scrum-halves feeding the ball virtually direct to their No 8’s feet, as opposed to their hooker’s. In this instance he has the whole rugby world with him – and the Breakdown is also happy to offer its own practical suggestion. Why not borrow from football referees and spray a temporary mark on the field justbefore every scrum to emphasise where the put-in needs to go? Overnight more scrums would become competitive again. Which, of course, would be Rassie’s perfect outcome. Rassie Erasmus before the Boks’ latest win. Photograph: Nations Championship/Getty Images

One to watch In case anyone is wondering, the North are level at 6-6 apiece with the South in the 12 games played so far in the inaugural Nations Championship. The number of tries is almost identical – 57 to 53 – and the aggregate points totals – 399 to 377 – suggests a similar story. While Japan continue to masquerade as a southern hemisphere nation for the sake of numerical convenience, it will be interesting to see if the same pattern is maintained in the next block of six games this weekend. New Zealand v Ireland and Argentina v England, in particular, will go a long way towards deciding where the balance of power lies going into November’s final furlongs. Bryn Ward is tackled during Ireland’s weekend victory over Japan. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

Memory lane August 1971: Lions tours lasted a whole northern hemisphere summer back in the early 70s. John Dawes’s squad began their trip with a 15-11 defeat by Queensland on 12 May and ended it with a dramatic 14-14 draw in the fourth Test more than three months later that made them the first, and still only, British & Irish Lions side to win a series in New Zealand. JPR Williams’s memorable second-half drop goal – the only one of his career – proved vital in Auckland. Our picture shows the Lions’ Gareth Edwards seeking to build another attack in a tense, tetchy match. “Everyone has this image of the 1971 Lions playing wonderful, expansive rugby throughout New Zealand, but the real truth was that the method wasn’t important to us, it was just the result we wanted,” said the Lions No 8 Mervyn Davies. Photograph: Colorsport/Shutterstock

Still want more? Pollock, pace and potential offer a glimpse of the promised land for England, writes Robert Kitson. Home ain’t what it used to be as far-flung Fiji are forced to “suck up” the bottom line, reports Andy Bull. And here’s Daniel Gallan on how the Wallabies’ pop-gun revival under Joe Schmidt was blown apart as France unloaded the heavy artillery.

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