New to SQL code - can someone explain what is happening here please? Doing loop through an xml string of values and inserting into table..

So I've just started a new job and have inherited some SQL code - which I and the rest of the team do not understand (as it's written by someone who has now left).

The code deals with inserting xml into a table.

The xml will look something like this: @TheRole = "<descriptions><description>test</description><description>abc</description></descriptions>"

The idea is that each description ("test" and "abc" in this example) need to be inserted to a table called PositionsDescriptions that would look something like this:

DescriptionId Description

1                    test

2                    abc

And this data is related to a job (or position) in a table called Positions_Descriptions, that would look something like this:

PositionId  SectionId  DescriptionId OrderNumber

1                      1               1                  1

1                      1               2                  2

To insert the descriptions into the PositionsDescriptions and Positions_Descriptions tables, we need to check that the description is not already in the PositionsDescriptions (if it's not, then insert it) and then fill the Positions_Descriptions table. The OrderNumber simply gives us the order in which the descriptions appear

The SQL code for doing this is:

DECLARE @TableRole TABLE(RowID int not null primary key identity(1,1), Description nvarchar(MAX), DescriptionId int)

DECLARE @RowsToProcess	int,
@CurrentRow			int,
@Description		nvarchar(MAX),
@OrderNumber			int,

INSERT INTO @TableRole (Description, DescriptionId) 

declare cur1 cursor local for

		select
			P.DescriptionId, N.Description
		from (
			select
				T.C.value('.', 'nvarchar(max)') as Description
			from @TheRole.nodes('/descriptions/description') as T(C)

			
		) as N
			left outer join PositionsDescriptions as P on  P.Description = N.Description
			
			
	open cur1
	while 1 = 1
	begin
		fetch cur1 into @DescriptionId, @Description
		if @@fetch_status <> 0 break

		if @DescriptionId is null
			begin
				insert into PositionsDescriptions (Description)
				select @Description

				select @DescriptionId = scope_identity()

			end

		insert INTO Positions_Descriptions(PositionId, SectionId, DescriptionId, OrderNumber)
		VALUES (@PositionId, 1, @DescriptionId, @OrderNumber)
		set @OrderNumber = @OrderNumber + 1


	end
	close cur1
	deallocate cur1

The problem is that when you insert something like @TheRole = "<descriptions><description>test</description><description>abc</description></descriptions>"

then the data is put in incorrectly, and put in in alphabetical order. So the OrderNumber is the wrong way round.

I'm convinced it's something to do with the code in the snippet above, but I can't work out what - can anyone help? Or at least point me in the direction of a more elegant solution?!