Dragons 22 Ulster 26
Dan McFarland declared Jacob Stockdale to have “the bit between his teeth” again after the Ireland fullback impressed in Ulster’s win over the Dragons at Principality Stadium.
Stockdale hasn’t featured in Ireland’s Six Nations campaign so far after recovering from injury, but he looked like he was getting back to his best in Cardiff and produced one sublime solo run.
His Ulster boss McFarland believes Stockdale is in with a chance of returning to Ireland’s squad for their final Six Nations clash with England in Dublin this Saturday.
McFarland said: “Jacob looked extremely dangerous. He’ll be disappointed with a little bit of inaccuracy in his play, but with ball in hand he’s frightening, isn’t he?
“I’m not the person who picks the Ireland team, but do I think he’s playing well at the moment? Yes, I do. He’s got the bit between his teeth.
“He is a tremendous athlete who can make things happen at the very top level. There is a good chance for him to get back involved with Ireland, but there are a lot of good players there.”
In a game played at the home of Welsh rugby because the Dragons’ usual Rodney Parade surface is in such poor condition, Ulster were always comfortable despite the final score.
They sealed a bonus-point win thanks to tries from Alby Mathewson, a Stewart Moore brace, and John Andrew, but McFarland admitted his team’s discipline was a real problem.
Stockdale’s weaving 50-metre run created Mathewson’s score, but Andrew and Nick Timoney were yellow carded in either half and Ulster conceded a mammoth 17 penalties across the 80 minutes.
Timoney’s sin-binning allowed Dragons to claim a losing bonus point through late Jonah Holmes and Rio Dyer efforts. Ollie Griffiths had crossed earlier in the second half.
McFarland praised man of the match Michael Lowry who started at outhalf to accommodate Stockdale at 15 and fronted up well to the physical threat of Jamie Roberts.
“Our effort was excellent and we took some tries through great individual opportunities,” said McFarland. “That was encouraging, but along the way we really made it difficult for ourselves with our lack of discipline. We compounded penalty on penalty and it meant it was very difficult to get any rhythm. Every now and again you do get on the wrong side of the referee and you have to learn. “We didn’t and never really got out of that trough, but I don’t think it’s a concern. We’ll refocus on that. We suffered from massive decisions in the Leinster game which were just wrong and we couldn’t do anything about those. We can do something about what happened in this game.”
Scorers - Dragons: Tries: Griffiths 55, Dyer 74, Holmes 78; Conversions: S Davies 55, Lewis 78; Penalty: S Davies 35. Ulster: Tries: Mathewson 13, Moore 20, 60, Andrew 49; Conversions: Lowry 14, 22, 61.
Ulster: J Stockdale; C Gilroy, S Moore, S McCloskey, R Lyttle; M Lowry, A Mathewson; E O'Sullivan, J Andrew, R Kan; A O'Connor (capt), K Treadwell; D McCann, S Reidy, N Timoney. Replacements: B Roberts for McCann 41-49 mins and for Andrew 55 mins, E McIlroy for Gilroy 47 mins, G Milasinovich for Kane 53 mins, , Matty Rea for McCann 57 mins, C Izuchukwu for Treadwell and D Shanahan for Mathewson both 63 mins, C Reid for O'Sullivan 66 mins, I Madigan for Lowry 74 mins. Yellow cards: J Andrew 42 mins, N Timoney 71 mins.
Dragons: J Lewis; J Holmes, A Owen, J Roberts, R Dyer; S Davies, R Williams (capt); B Harris, R Hibbard, L Fairbrother; J Davies, J Maksymiw; H Keddie, B Fry, O Griffiths. Replacements: N Tompkins for for Owen, M Screech for Maksymiw and D Baker for Fry all 53 mins, B Carter for Keddie 54 mins, J Reynolds for Harris 59 mins, G Bertranou for Williams 60 mins, A Jarvis for Fairbrother 66 mins, R Lawrence for Baker 75 mins. Yellow cards: H Keddie 43 mins.
Referee: A Jones (WRU).
