All Black Will Jordan has been named World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year.
The 23-year-old outside back has pipped Australia’s Andrew Kellaway, Wales’ Louis Rees-Zammit and England’s Marcus Smith for the prestigious award, which has been previously picked up by the likes of Romain Ntamack, Rieko Ioane and Maro Itoje.
While Jordan made his test debut in 2020, no awards were dished out last year due to the significantly affected international calendar which saw a huge disparity in the number of games played by each nation.
While the likes of England and Wales managed to get through almost a full roster of games, New Zealand and Australia notched up just six apiece and South Africa didn’t play a single match.
Jordan burst onto the scene for the All Blacks last season when he made his first significant appearance off the bench in the side’s 38-0 win over Argentina, with the reserve winger scoring two opportunistic tries late in the match to help his side to a comfortable victory.