If Andy Farrell has been keeping a weather-eye on Jacob Stockdale’s rise in the early part of this season, he will see that after five rounds of the United Rugby Championship, the Ulster winger has made more metres (317) and beaten more defenders (25) than any other player in the league.
Last week he was equal top with Scotland’s Duhan van der Merwe with four line breaks and with nine gainline carries equal top with the Bulls’ Cameron Hanekom and Ospreys’ Morgan Morris.
The shorthand is Stockdale has been getting himself into matches and on the ball in places he can do damage. He even scored a trademark chip and collect try in Pretoria against the Bulls, beating Kurt-Lee Arendse to possession. For another score at the weekend, Stockdale used his huge frame for a one-handed dot down against Ospreys.
The eye-catching numbers he has generated this season are the kind people expect from Stockdale, whose strike rate for Ireland is around a try every two matches, or 19 tries over 37 caps.
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His current form even moved Ulster coach Richie Murphy to name-check him earlier this week before Farrell announced Wednesday’s 35-man Irish squad.
“We [Ulster] were scratchy in the first few weeks,” said Murphy. “But the last two weeks I think we’ve put in some good performances as a team and individuals within that have put their hands up, the likes of Jacob.”
It is a timely response from the 28-year-old, who has never given up on playing for Ireland but has not worn a green shirt since he lined out on the left wing for a World Cup warm-up match against Samoa in August 2023. The same month he played against Italy for a total of two caps for the season.
Injury has played its part in his current low profile at international level. An injured ankle in Ulster’s first match of the 2021-22 season required surgery and a season was lost. That began the long hiatus away from Irish teams, the 2023 game against Italy in the World Cup warm-up his first international start since 2021.
The past is where Stockdale would like to leave the struggle to reassert himself at the top of Irish rugby and as he arrives into camp at the IRFU High Performance Centre on Monday, before departing for a warm-weather training camp in Portugal, the seemingly immovable force of James Lowe is what will again greet him.
Lowe is a significant hurdle to overcome if Stockdale is to figure in Farrell’s playing plans in a world of 5-3 and 6-2 bench splits.
“My big personal ambition for the season is getting back in the green jersey more,” Stockdale said this week. “I’ve only played a couple of games in the last three or four years and I’d like to see that number increase by a few.
“I’m not putting too much pressure on myself because there’s a lot of things I can’t control in regard to that, but I’m just making sure I’m playing the best I possibly can to put those things in my favour.
It has been a long six years since he scored his record seven tries in a Six Nations Championship with two against Italy, Wales and Scotland and one against England in Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day. At that stage no Irish player could match him for scoring. The try against England was the then 22-year-old’s 11th try in nine Test matches with another to come later in November against New Zealand.
“It does definitely get frustrating at times, but that’s what professional rugby is all about,” he said. “There’s times when other lads are playing better than you, there are times when the team is doing well and doing poorly. For the last while, the Ireland team has been doing very well and when teams are winning it’s hard to push your way into that.”
Stockdale believes he has grown between the ages of 22 and 28 and as a father of two children, occupies a different place within the Ulster squad. Working on aspects of his game that he hopes can be a point of difference with other players, as well as the fresh approach of Murphy in his first full season as Ulster coach, has revealed a little bit of the strike capability of the younger player.
“I’m a very different player to the player I was back then. I’ve different strengths and different weaknesses,” he said. “About a year ago, I decided to focus on stuff I was good at and really go after that. I’d got away from that, I think.”
Going after what he is good at, scattering defences and scoring tries, may turn out to be a shrewd decision in moving from squad player to left wing. A fully fired up and switched on Stockdale would not only be an asset for Farrell but just reward for an enviable talent.
Maybe it won’t be New Zealand in the first match but with flashes of the old Stockdale, a cap in November may not be far away.
