Anscombe: Give Jackson breathing space to mature at Ulster

He is Ulster’s first-choice out-half and prominent among the new breed of 10s breathing down Jonathan Sexton’s neck for the right to don Ireland’s number 10 jersey but the time has come to cut Paddy Jackson some slack.

So believes his club coach Mark Anscombe, who could be forgiven for thinking that sections of the ‘southern’ media know few other Ulster players, such is the preponderance of questions he faces about his baby-faced pilot whenever he ventures beyond Belfast.

Yesterday saw Anscombe in Dublin for the annual Heineken Cup launch and it was Jackson who again dominated much of the discussion after the Kiwi coach was asked what the man with four international caps could do this season.

“People getting off his back would be a start. Paddy is a confidence guy and he has been playing well. I have full confidence his goal-kicking will come right. He is working hard at it. His game is getting better, I’m comfortable where it is at.

“He is still only just turning 22 and a lot of young men in that position, when you look at the environment they have been in, they have had some senior players in that position to bring them along. He hasn’t had that.

“He got thrown in at the deep end at a young age and he has had to learn how to swim at the deep end pretty quickly. And it’s not a bed of roses. Development as a player, particularly as a 10, has its ups and downs.

“Poor old Paddy, at times, when he has had his downs, like every player had, there has been nowhere to hide because we haven’t had the depth to allow him to gain breath and I admire the way he has handled the pressure in the last few years.”

Ruan Pienaar has assumed the role of father figure and protector given the absence of a veteran out-half at Ravenhill this past few years and the South African returns from Rugby Championship duty on Monday in time for the Heineken Cup opener.

That will help, according to Anscombe and yet Johann Muller has witnessed a metamorphosis in the young Methodist College graduate’s personality in the four years the lock has been setting standards as club captain up north.

“Coming in he was a quiet, shy type of guy who didn’t really say too much and didn’t control the game too much from a talking point of view. In training this season he has been absolutely outstanding in the way that he runs the ship and the forwards.

“For me as a captain I just basically leave everything to him because he is capable of doing all those things. He is learning and if he continues the growth I have seen in the last 18 months, there is a great future for him.”

Jackson is, in one way, a victim of his own success.

Ian Madigan at the same age had a mere handful of Leinster appearances to his credit. JJ Hanrahan is just two months younger than Jackson yet the former has played a grand total of 15 times for Munster and only twice as a replacement in Europe. The Ulster man, by contrast, was thrust into a starting berth for a Heineken Cup semi-final against Edinburgh at the Aviva Stadium just as he turned 20 while his Irish debut, against Scotland in Edinburgh, came a couple of months short of his 21st birthday.

“Was he ready? Maybe not,” said Anscombe yesterday.

Yet, ultimately, what’s done is done. Anscombe said as much when asked to elaborate on the alacrity with which Declan Kidney thrust him centre-stage for that tricky Murrayfield fixture in last year’s Six Nations.

“It’s a learning curve,” he pointed out in more general terms. “Good footballers bounce back, the weaker ones don’t. For us it is about managing them through the good and bad times and hopefully they will come out the right end.”