Finishing school: Jacob Stockdale takes talents to Rugby World Cup

Twenty-one caps into his international career, Jacob Stockdale takes his try-scoring talents onto the world stage for the first time

There is a new entry in the top ten. Still just 23-years-old, still coming to terms with that difficult second season, he has the potential to knock Brian O’Driscoll out of the way and top the charts.

That’s according to Tommy Bowe who played with Jacob Stockdale in his breakthrough year at Ulster, got to know him as a friend, now scrutinises him as a pundit, and also, with a certain amount of awe. It really should be the opposite way around, Stockdale the prodigy, Bowe the pathfinder. But the man who finished his international career as the second-highest try scorer in Irish rugby history has been hugely impressed by the assurance of someone so young.