Jackson backs up strong words with powerful actions

It’s a fortnight since Paddy Jackson sat in an ornate room with a bunch of hacks and laid bare his determination to be The Man when it came to the clutch business of splitting the posts from the tee.

Young-looking enough to get away with wearing a school blazer and polite enough to be brought home to meet the mother on Debs’ night he may be, but there was a steeliness to his words that day in Carton House that caught everyone’s attention.

His frustrations were borne of the day job in Belfast where Ruan Pienaar has so often been entrusted with the extras, but it is an issue that has arguably had more airtime when it comes to his Test career.