Former Ireland wing Andrew Trimble says Ulster’s Jacob Stockdale should be part of Ireland’s World Cup squad in the autumn “if he gets back to his best”.
Stockdale was named player of the tournament after scoring a remarkable seven tries in the 2018 Six Nations tournament and was nominated for European Player of the Year in 2019.
Injuries have limited his appearances for Ireland and Ulster in recent years.
“If he gets anywhere near his best he has to go,” argued Trimble.
“He’s up there with James Lowe for me in terms of Ireland wings,” the 70-times capped Ireland international told BBC Sport NI’s Ulster Rugby Show.
“He played the best rugby you’ll ever see a winger play ever and he’ll never get back there but if he gets anywhere near that it’s good enough.”
Stockdale has scored 19 tries in 35 Ireland appearances but injury has prevented him from representing his country since his try-scoring last cap against Japan in July 2021.
The 26-year-old was side-lined for almost a year after sustaining an ankle injury on the opening day of the 2021-22 campaign.
After playing against Connacht and Scarlets at the start of this season, he suffered a further setback with another ankle problem in the defeat by Leinster on 30 September, although he did turn out for Ireland A in their 47-19 defeat by an All Blacks XV on 4 November.
“I thought he looked incredible [in those opening two games] – fired up, hungry, powerful – he looked like he had a proper pre-season and had got himself ready – then the injury came and he hasn’t been able to get that momentum,” added Trimble.
World Cup squad places up for grabs
Trimble joined regular presenter Tommy Bowe in the final Ulster Rugby Show of 2022 and the pair agreed that Hugo Keenan, Lowe, Mack Hansen and probably Jimmy O’Brien looked ‘nailed on’ to be part of Andy Farrell’s squad for the World Cup.
That potentially leaves only one place among ‘the back five’ to make the plane to France in the autumn, with Jordan Larmour, Keith Earls, Andrew Conway, Robert Baloucoune, Michael Lowry and Stockdale all in contention.
Bowe believes that while Ireland can take confidence from their recent impressive run of results and their position as world number one they are “not in the perfect position” heading into World Cup year.
“I think squad depth isn’t maybe in as good a place as we would like it to be,” said the ex-Ulster wing.
“You look at the Ireland A match against a New Zealand XV and Ireland’s match with Fiji, I think a lot of the guys didn’t rise up to the level we thought they would have.
“Ireland have eight more matches now before the Rugby World Cup and there are very few of those players who are going to get a chance to break into the squad.
“There are a few guys who had chances but didn’t take them.
“We won our three matches in the autumn and proved that where need be we could win ugly but still I think there are areas in the squad that there are question marks over.”
Irreplaceables, areas of strength and Ulster hopefuls
For his part, Trimble believes that among the pluses from the autumn matches was being able to overcome a South African team renowned for its physicality.
“We learned how to cope with that big physical South Africa team, the same could apply to a French or English team, we learned that we can cope with that style of play, also that Stuart McCloskey fits into international rugby and Jack Crowley is a credible option at fly-half if required,” said Trimble.
The two former Ireland wings acknowledge that the loss of either Johnny Sexton or Tadhg Furlong through injury would be difficult for Ireland to cope with, and the same applies to Leinster loose-head prop Andrew Porter.
“Jeremy Loughman put his hand up in November, he went quite well, but I do think loose-head is a worry,” observed Trimble.
“We have strength in depth at hooker with Ronan Kelleher, Dan Sheehan, Rob Herring and potentially Tom Stewart as a bolter while you have James Ryan and Iain Henderson probably in the second row and Tadgh Beirne at six, Josh van der Flier at seven and Caelan Doris at eight.”
The duo reveal that they think Keenan, Hansen, Robbie Henshaw, Garry Ringrose, Lowe, Sexton and Jamison Gibson-Park represent Ireland’s strongest starting XV in the back division.
While McCloskey, Herring and Henderson seem the most likely Ulster players to be part of the travelling World Cup squad, Trimble and Bowe consider Stewart, James Hume, Lowry, Nathan Doak, Stockdale, Baloucoune, Stewart and Tom O’Toole to be in the mix also.
“A few of the Ulster guys are not quite where they were last year but if they can get back to where they were last year, or in previous years in Stockdale’s case, then they will be in contention,” added Trimble.
