IT WAS A telling moment when Jacob Stockdale walked in from touch holding the ball high like the spoils of war, before spiking it with venom.
Relief. Vindication.
Wings in an aggressive defence always tread along a knife-edge of risk and reward. It rarely comes with quite as much drama as it did in the closing phases at The Rec this afternoon.
After botching their time-keeping on their final line-out, Dan McFarland’s defence had to withstand one last almighty Bath onslaught with just a 16-17 lead to hold on to.
Bath were brave, shunning a slow roll towards a drop-goal attempt in favour of a wide raid across Ulster’s 22. Stockdale shot up to close off the space, but Bath found a way around around him and Zach Mercer romped away towards what appeared a certain try.
Absolutely incredible finish at the Rec!
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 16, 2019
Jacob Stockdale stopping a certain try with a sensational interception!
Bath 16-17 Ulster.
What a win for @UlsterRugby!#BATvULS #ChampionsCup #VMTVRugby pic.twitter.com/KvW9d5XTTf
The game-saver, though, was Stockdale. The Ireland wing didn’t take a heavy contact after shooting up and immediately spun on his heels, racing back and somehow propelling himself towards the ball as it left Mercer’s hands towards the expectant Semesa Rokoduguni.
Blushes spared, four points sealed and perhaps even a season saved.
Looking back at that now Ulster are lucky Mercer passes as that’s a shoulder charge from Cooney if he doesn’t. But great work from Stockdale to work back, take control of the situation and make the intercept. Top class defensive effort
jaysus lads they won away from home, a great start
Infairness though, stockdale was the one who shot up (not the first time) and let them make the break. Least he could do for his teammates was track back
@Adam Mac Carthaigh: yep. Shot out, brought Addison with him and both of them were a mile away. He nearly caused it.
@Adam Mac Carthaigh: Jesus looking at there, Addison didn’t exactly bust himself to recover after
@Adam Mac Carthaigh: what about the team mate that threw a crooked lineout with the clock going red? Take a look at the whole game and amongst other things you’ll see that shooting up in defence was clearly part of the game plan. In the first 3 minutes alone, Ulster shot up three times and were effective on all three occasions. Marshall (frequently), Carter, Herring, McCloskey, Addison, O’Connor all shot up within the first half hour. Stockdale backed himself to shoot up and worked very hard to track back so deserves the credit. Bottom line is, his interception was the difference between Ulster winning or losing. A big player for big moments.
@Andrew Adams: here we go again. He’s not a big player for big moments. He’s a solid winger with impressive confidence (at times) and speed that helps him finish well and recover from poor mistakes. He’s constantly been caught out for ulster and Ireland (English game) for shooting. He got lucky against a poor Scotland team when he made a great hit on Hogg. In reality he’s average, we saw that at the RWC where he did nothing after that Scotland game. Time to stop writing puff pieces about average players and focus on being constructively critical. No use praising an average player for spiking a ball like an NFL superstar after he’s messed up in the first place
@Adam Mac Carthaigh: what province do you support then. Name a winger better than Stockdale
@LP: James Lowe, Andrew Conway and Keith Earls are all better and have proven so by consistently performing over a longer period of time
@Adam Mac Carthaigh: here we go again? I simply pointed out that shooting up was part of Ulster’s game plan and they employed the tactic frequently. But i’m sure you watched the game. I also pointed out that Herring’s crooked throw placed his team mates needlessly at the risk of losing so it was he who messed up in the first place. Even you have admitted that Stockdale has impressive confidence and speed above so lets make it relative with four simple examples. Intercept try v Wales, try v England, try v NZ, defensive read on Saturday….all big moments to win games. There can be no denying that Stockdale is off form (easily traced back to the Leinster QF) and has defensive issues but there can be no denying he has the ability to win games whether you like him or not
Why didn’t he do that in the World Cup?
@And_Helipad: Are we going to have to listen to this sort of rubbish for the next 4 years?
@O’Cinnéide Pól: nah that gobshïte will get bored of it shortly