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'Where is Stockdale? He was average at best... Man, he was poor'

By Ian Cameron
Jacob Stockdale (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Former Ireland and Leinster backrow Shane Jennings has shredded the performance of Jacob Stockdale in Ulster’s Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final match against Toulouse at Stade Ernest-Wallon. Ulster failed to put up much of a challenge against the might of the French giants, ultimately getting thumped 36-8 in a one-sided rout.

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Stockdale was up against Springbok hot-shot Cheslin Kolbe and was left second-best on more than one occasion by the Rugby World Cup winner. Kolbe stepped Stockdale for one of his two tries, but Jennings believes it was just part of ‘poor’ game for the one time star of Irish rugby.

The Guinness Six Nations Player of the Season in 2018 has been struggling to find a consistent vein of form in recent times, and some are questioning whether the Ulsterman can hold on to his Ireland jersey as the conclusion of the Six Nations and the ‘8 Nations’ approaches.

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“Where was Stockdale?” bemoaned Jennings on Virgin Media Sport on TV3. “He’s their Irish international, he’s their best players in the backline.

“You want Stockdale and McCloskey to step up, obviously there was the disruption. Even more so at that stage you want a fella like that, they’re going to turn to their leader, their best player.

“He was average at best. Sloppy ball-handling, shifting on passes to people in worse positions than he was. That would be what was really irking on me if I was a coach going back into that dressing room.”

“The lads like Stockdale. Man he was poor. If you have your best player performing like that you’re not going to get anywhere. I think he needs to have a good hard look at himself.”

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Fellow pundit Alan Quinlan questioned his aggression levels, and implied the uncapped New Zealand born James Lowe is set pinch his Ireland berth. “You look at James Lowe, enthusiasm coming in off the wing, popping in behind Sexton and coming in off rucks. You’d love to see Stockdale have more involvement and not just wait for the final pass because he’s an excellent finisher.”

Criticism of the team’s performance wasn’t just voiced outside the Ulster camp, with Ulster head coach Dan McFarland accepting that it fell well below the standard required.

“Toulouse are a good team and when you make mistakes they are going to punish you. The slightest error and they are through to score,” said McFarland. “They showed that and they are a great team. On the reverse side of things, we know we didn’t look like a quarter-final team today.

“For whatever reason we haven’t been playing very well after the break and it looked like that today. We got punished and we deserved it.

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“We just aren’t playing very well at the moment – that’s the bottom line.

“I was really pleased with the way the forwards went up front. We talked about their pack and for 60 minutes our scrum was excellent and our set-piece worked well – hats off to the forwards but in other areas of the game we weren’t at the races.”

additional reporting PA

 

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J
Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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