How does Jacob Stockdale so regularly manage to be in the right place at the right time?
After another impressive try-scoring performance for Ulster in Saturday's Champions Cup clash against Racing 92, Bernard Jackman was given the task of deconstructing Stockdale's brilliance on Off the Ball's Sunday Paper Review show this afternoon.
Honing in on Stockdale's eerily reliable ability to evade tacklers and read the bounce of a rugby ball, Jackman was faced with the following: "Is he able to predict how a ball is going to bounce in some innate way that we don't realise?"
Only half-joking, the former Dragons head coach nevertheless mulled over the Ulster man's uncanny knack of running over tries.
"He has a very strong hand-off," Jackman noted.
"For a big, strong, quick, athletic guy, he actually has very good footwork.
"So as the tackler lunges, he's able to just shift slightly away again whereas most players are committed to [the one] running line.
"I think he is getting very favorable bounces, but having said that, the key difference in those tries is he's been able to get past the defenders.
"So when that ball bounces, he's in front of him."
Reluctant to suggest that Stockdale is in possession of an innate ability to read the unpredictable flight of a grounded rugby ball, Jackman nevertheless believes that the Ulster and Ireland man is in a hugely impressive run of form.
Suggesting that had there been a British & Irish Lions tour this summer, Jacob Stockdale would be "nailed on" as the starting winger, the rapid ascent of the 22-year-old has been certainly impressive.
You can listen back to Bernard Jackman on the Sunday Paper Review show here.
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