JACOB’S LADDER
He’s the Irish wing sensation who’s climbed to the top ...now can the Tigers knock him down a peg or two?
FROM Prison visits to paparazzi attention on the back of a prolific, recordbreaking Six Nations campaign, Jacob Stockdale is stock-piling life experiences in a hurry.
Ulster and Ireland’s 22-year-old wing is one of the new sensations of the world game. Since his Test debut on tour against the USA 16 months ago, he has won 11 caps — and scored 11 tries. No-one had ever touched down seven times in one championship, until Stockdale managed it to help Joe Schmidt’s side claim an historic Grand Slam earlier this year.
He doesn’t recall every detail of every try, but the one which stands out was his decisive, lastminute interception strike which helped Ireland quell stubborn Welsh resistance in Dublin.
‘Gareth Anscombe threw a pass, I saw it in the air and it felt like it was there for about an hour,’ said Stockdale. ‘Once I grabbed it, there was sheer panic!
‘I remember thinking there were two lads right behind me, on my tail, but looking back there was nobody near me. I still sprinted in. It’s still a goosebump moment for me, when I think of it.’
What happened next was that Stockdale discovered just how much his life had changed, on the strength of that productive day’s work. Suddenly, he was a subject of national interest. Suddenly, the lenses were pointing his way.
‘After the Wales game, I stayed back in the team hotel on the Saturday night and on the Sunday morning I went out to get breakfast,’ he told Sportsmail, earlier this week. ‘As I walked out, all these cameramen started snapping pictures of me.
‘They were shouting, “Jacob, Jacob”, I was turning round and they were taking pictures. It was just a really weird experience. It was the sort of thing I’d only ever seen on TV or in movies, then it was the quite very his Stockdale country. moment happening big a big deal, deal.’ himself His I for realised to first his me! has province appearance that That become it was was and a for June Ireland last came year. in With New several York in Irishmen hoped for on a bench Lions place. duty, Instead he had he was thrust straight into the starting XV and couldn’t hide his nerves. Ronan O’Gara sensed his trepidation and intervened.
‘After Joe (Schmidt) named the team, we got to training and I was sat beside the pitch thinking, “Flip, I can’t screw this up”,’ he said. ‘I was panicking a wee bit and ROG — who was doing a bit of coaching with us — spotted it a mile off. He came over and asked how I was feeling. I said, “Yeah, yeah, good, excited,” trying to hide it. He just said, “You look like you’re s****ing yourself”! ‘He just told me, “You feel like there are a million things to remember and do, but realistically there are five things you have to do and three of them are the right things, so just don’t do the two that are wrong.” In fairness, he was right. Training went fine and my debut went well so I was pretty thankful to him for that.’ Stockdale the his shared amateur His age close-knit father, religious of rugby four had Graham, played — family player beliefs. was was inspired rugby and and a works their keen from by as a chaplain prison. at Maghaberry Official reports highsecurity have dangerous depicted place, it but is a Stockdale volatile, Jnr took up an invite to talk to inmates there earlier this year and he savoured the experience. ‘My dad loves his work, he finds it really rewarding and he’s really good at it,’ he said. ‘He had me in one day to do a Q&A with some of the prisoners. I really enjoyed it. I w was invited back to d do a gym session with a few of the guys. I’m looking fo forward to that.
‘I suppose if you a are going into a p prison, you’re always go going to be a wee bit apprehensive, but they h are human be beings, they’re good gu guys and they’ve just m made mistakes.’
T Today Stockdale wi will attempt to help U Ulster maintain a pr proud, long-standing tr tradition of giving Le Leicester the runaround ar in European combat at Ravenhill. Next month, he will set his sights on the All Blacks. He was in an Ireland side who beat New Zealand at Under 20 level and he is hopeful that senior success can follow.
Asked if the world champions will be beatable in Dublin, he said: ‘Yeah, I definitely think so. South Africa beat them in the Rugby Championship. That says they are a beatable team, but the way they responded in that second match against South Africa also shows you can’t beat New Zealand by just trying to defend a lead against them, you have to keep scoring.’
Stockdale has certainly kept scoring — and kept having new life experiences as a result.