Bundee will bounce back – Stockdale
JACOB Stockdale could sympathise with Bundee Aki after the Ireland centre copped a red card against Samoa. After all, the Ulster wing took a big hit from Samoa hooker Seilala Lam early in the contest.
Referee Nic Berry deemed Lam’s high shot only worthy of a yellow card, however. Both players were ducking into the contact and you felt Berry did not want to send a player off so early into that Pool A clash.
Aki caught Ulupano Seuteni with a high tackle soon after and he immediately looked in trouble.
Again, it looked more mistimed than malicious but Berry was left with little option. World Rugby are on a crusade to eliminate such tackles from the game and Aki was the latest player to learn the hard way.
‘I think it was harsh,’ said Stockdale on Aki’s 29th-minute sending off.
‘I thought there wasn’t an awful lot of difference between Bundee’s tackle and the tackle on me. That’s not a comment on anyone’s technique or anything like that, it’s more on the inconsistency between cards that we’ve seen in this World Cup.
‘It’s disappointing for Bundee, but he’ll bounce back.’
The Connacht centre suffered the ignominy of becoming the first Ireland player to be sent off in the 32year history of the World Cup and is only the fourth to be red-carded in a Test match, joining Willie Duggan, Jamie Heaslip and CJ Stander.
Aki will face a disciplinary hearing in Tokyo today and could be hit with a ban, thus ending his World Cup involvement. Joe Schmidt still has three quality midfielders to call upon in Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw and Chris Farrell, but Aki would be a major loss.
‘Obviously his robustness and his physicality is massive for us,’ Stockdale admitted.
‘If he wasn’t available it would be a big loss but we’ve a lot of very, very good centres. Chris Farrell, Garry, Robbie, there’s three class centres to pick from if Bundee doesn’t make it.’
Andy Farrell has been doing an exemplary job as defence coach here in Japan, with Ireland conceding a paltry two tries across four pool games. But Farrell will be making sure that his players do not fall foul of the match officials again at this World Cup. Everyone is on alert now – one clumsy tackle and it could be curtains. ‘Definitely,’ Stockdale agreed. ‘If you get it wrong it’s a red card. It’s something we’re massively focused on to make sure we don’t do. Bundee’s was such a reactionary thing because the ball bounced and he was going from either carrying or making a tackle and he just was really unfortunate. That’s rugby.’
Stockdale came into the tournament with a lethal strike rate of 16 tries in 21 Tests but the 23-year-old has yet to cross the whitewash at this World Cup.
Meanwhile, the likes of Jordan Lamour and Andrew Conway have been racking up the tries in recent weeks.
Larmour’s form in particular has been impressive and the Leinster starlet is doing his best to upset the natural pecking order in Ireland’s back three.
‘He was brilliant. His footwork is probably just as good as Cheslin Kolbe’s.
‘We saw him bring that out. We all know how good he is. I do especially, having played against him a couple of times and now playing with him. I thought he had a great game, great for him.’
So, is he worried about this apparent try-scoring drought?
‘It wasn’t one of those games where wingers got a lot of ball,’ he replied.
‘That’s a bit disappointing for me but yeah, look, we got a massive win and in terms of the team’s performance it was brilliant.
‘I’m just excited to move on to a quarter-final and maybe if I get a try there I’ll be a bit happier.’
What will please Schmidt the most about that thumping win over the Samoans was his team’s ability to control the game after going down to 14 men with 50 minutes still to play.
That composure and control bodes well for next weekend’s seismic quarter-final clash against New Zealand in Tokyo which is set to be the biggest game in Stockdale’s fledging career, but he was keeping his feet firmly on the ground.
‘I’ll do exactly the same as every game. Just train as hard as I can, do as much analysis as I can on whoever I’ll be playing against.’