Ulster Rugby vs Harlequins

We caught up with the 23-year-old winger to hear how he’s been getting on since returning from World Cup duties, and how he hopes Ulster will build on their winning form against Harlequins this week. JACOB STOCKDALE

faster pace than previously, which is a really positive thing. “The quality of the players, and in particular the younger guys coming through in the last year or two has caused us to step up because they’re so enthusiastic in training. They’re excited about getting their hands on the ball and it’s something that has been really good for the squad as a whole. The pace has also been pushed by the leadership group within the squad - Henderson, Burns, McCloskey and Marshall – those are the guys who are really driving that.” Stockdale and the wider Ulster squad have been closely monitoring their Pool 3 opponents, and are aware of how defensively strong Harlequins are, as well as the attacking threat they pose. “Harlequins have the highest tackle success rate in the English Premiership and they have the most amount of tackles as well so they’re impressive defensively. They try to exert pressure on teams and force them to play down dark alleys; they get turnovers oœ the back of that and are able to attack. “They have dangerous attackers; you look at players like Gabriel Ibitoye setting up James Lang against Clermont - that was a bit of individual brilliance - they do have those

It feels like a lifetime ago, but it has only been just over a month since Jacob Stockdale returned to his Province after Ireland’s World Cup campaign, and he’s delighted to be back at Kingspan Stadium. “It’s obviously a bit of a challenge to park the disappointment of the World Cup and come straight back in to play for Ulster, but when you see the buzz around the stadium with the guys and Ulster having a good start to the season, it makes it a lot easier to come back in and getting that drive to get back in and play rugby.” Stockdale has noticed one area of the Ulster set-up which has evolved markedly, and that has been the intensity of training within the squad, led by Dan McFarland and the rest of the coaching team. “Without a doubt, the training at Ulster has definitely stepped up over the last season or two. I came back from Ireland and was blowing after 20 minutes’ game time, which is great because it shows the guys are really fit and train incredibly hard. That’s partly to do with Dan, Jared and Dwayne really pushing the standards and training at a

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