JACOB’S STOCK RISING FAST

JOE SCHMIDT believes Jacob Stockdale has the ability to thrive on his international debut tomorrow. And the Irish coach also hopes to give four more players their international bow off the bench at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey. Stockdale (right) is the first of the new players to get his opportunity and Schmidt reckons this is the perfect environment for the 21-year old from Lisburn to shine. “We think he’s someone who’s got real potential and we want to see how he performs when the pressure comes on,” said Schmidt. “We also think with Tiernan (O’halloran), who spent a bit of time with us, and Keith Earls and Garry Ringrose, it’s not as much of a change up as it might otherwise have been if we had less experience around him. So all the other guys in that back five have all have accumulated a fair bit of experience.” Schmidt said he hopes to spring Dave Heffernan, Andrew Porter, James Ryan and Rory Scannell off the bench for their senior debuts as well tomorrow. He believes Porter has the ability to make the switch to a tighthead: “His willingness to learn is fantastic and he’s got the frame to cope.”

IRELAND: T O’halloran; K Earls, G Ringrose, L Marshall, J Stockdale; J Carbery, K Marmion; C Healy, N Scannell, J Ryan; Q Roux, D Toner; R Ruddock (c), J van der Flier, J Conan. Replacements: D Heffernan, D Kilcoyne, A Porter, J Ryan, D Leavy, L Mcgrath, R Scannell, S Zebo.