Jacob Stockdale: 'My big personal ambition for the year is just getting back in the green jersey'

GREEN JERSEY: Jacob Stockdale's ambition is to get back into a green jersey. Picture: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Jacob Stockdale has put regaining an Ireland jersey at the top of his priority list after just two Test appearances since 2021.

Andy Farrell will name his Autumn Nations Series squad next Wednesday ahead of November Tests against New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia, making this weekend’s round of URC fixtures the final opportunity to make an impression on the Ireland head coach.

Stockdale, the player of the championship and record try scorer in the 2018 Six Nations Grand Slam campaign, will continue in the number 11 jersey of Ulster when they face Ospreys in Belfast on Friday night and has set his sights on reclaiming Ireland’s left-wing berth from present incumbent James Lowe.

The 28-year-old, who claimed the winning try in Ireland’s last home victory over the All Blacks in November 2018, has scored 19 tries in 37 Ireland appearances but having made the touring squad for last July’s drawn series with world champions South Africa without adding to his cap tally, he knows all he can do is play the best he can if he wants to earn a first Test cap since the August 2023 World Cup warm-ups against Italy and Samoa.

“I feel fit and fast and strong at the moment and enjoying my rugby,” Stockdale said in Cardiff this week as Ulster’s representative at the Champions Cup media day.

“My big personal ambition for the year is just getting back in the green jersey. I’ve had one game in the last three or four years, I think, and I’d like to see that number increase by a few.

“I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself because there’s a lot of things I can’t control in regards to that but just making sure I’m playing the best I possibly can to put those things in my favour.” The Ulster wing admitted it was difficult to stay ambitious when it had become so difficult to break into a winning Ireland team.

“It does definitely get frustrating at times, and that’s what professional sport is all about. There’s times when lads are playing better than you and there’s times when the team are doing well or playing poorly and for the last while the team has been doing very well. And when teams are winning it’s hard to push your way into that.

“Someone said to me, ‘it’s harder to get out of the team than get into it at the moment’ and I think that’s probably fairly true. So it’s one of those things that you just have to bide your time with.

“I’ve always been encouraged by the fact that while I’m not playing games I’m still being selected for squads and particularly when I’m maybe not playing my best rugby that’s a real vote of confidence in me as a player.

“Now, equally I’d very much like to change that and get on the pitch a lot more but the lines of communication are always open and I think Faz is always pretty fair in the way in which he goes about his selection process.”