Getting Jackson confident again

Before the Scotland game when Paddy Jackson was parachuted into the starting lineup, the RTE panel of George Hook, Conor O'Shea and Brent Pope were in agreement, whatever happens with Jackson during the game, Kidney should stick with him to help his development in the long term.

Fair play to Deccie, that's exactly what he did and rightly so, but now that he's come through those 3 games, what now for Jackson?

Jackson strikes me as a confident young player, and while Newstalk on Wednesday were talking about how he doesn't necessarily need an arm around the shoulder, it's still important that he is managed correctly.
He returned to Ulster colours last Friday and looked a pale shadow of his former confident self from only a few weeks prior.

Now is a very important time in Jackson's development, and if handled wrong he might fade into obscurity.

I have a feeling that come the Autumn, he may have fallen back into not just 2nd choice, but 3rd choice Irish out-half after Ian Madigan. This could shatter his confidence even more than it is now.

Here's what needs to happen to ensure that Jackson comes back sooner with confidence and can continue developing as a player (and lip syncer).

1. Take him off the kicks for Ulster for the rest of this season. While at the same time he needs to work on his kicking. A lot. Not just placekicking but out of hand too. Mark Tainton should be told to go to Ulster and work overdrive with him so when it comes to the summer tour or to next season, he can step up and resume kicking duties for Ulster.

2. He must be selected for the summer tour. None of this summer off business that prevented him from playing in the JWC. Being selected in this tour against opposition that are at a much lower standard will help get his confidence up for the new season. Being around the Irish camp and Kidney will be important this summer, especially as he should be looking to start to dictate things in that squad.

3. He needs to be incorporated into the IRFU player welfare programme asap. While games help his development, he looks jaded, and needs some time off. He's young and eager to fix things, but he's trying to hard and things aren't working. A week off here and there would be good for him. The summer tour is important for his development, and he can't be too jaded for it.

Because everyone in Ireland wants him back to his best, releasing his buddy Luke Marshall through gaps, and controlling the game by knowing when to kick for territory and when to release the talented young Ulster backs. We want wee Jackson back rumblin'.

Future Irish Options at Outhalf

With Ronan O'Gara's career seemingly winding down, It's time to look at the pretenders to his throne on the bench of the Irish squad.

With the wolfhounds showcasing all three on the pitch at once before the start of the 6 Nations, it seems like a great place to start. I will also look at recent performances from each during the 6 Nations for their province.

Paddy Jackson is the only one of the three that seems to have cemented his place for his provincial side, and therefore seems to be ahead of the other two (rightly or wrongly, it's sound logic).

A clear indicator for how I think they should be ordered came when all of them were on the pitch against the Saxons. Jackson at 10, Keatley at 12 and Madigan at 15. At least in theory, those were the positions that they were meant to play.

Madigan seemed to want to be first receiver, and demanded the ball at every occasion. He also took over kicking to the corner duties. When the chance came to step up and take responsibility came (as would be expected from a ten), Madigan wanted it more than Jackson or Keatley.

In terms of their respective talents, Jackson sits very deep behind the gainline, has a decent eye for a kick to touch, with a respective pass. His goalkicking hasn't been impressive, with Pienaar taking over the duties midway through the season. He seems to have leadership qualities, with captaining the under 20s at last years 6 Nations. Although what was more indicating was the upturn in the 20's fortunes when Jackson didn't feature in the JWC.

Jackson impressed me on his debut. He showed me a lot in open play that I didn't think he was capable of. This makes me a lot more comfortable about him in the future. He deserves to keep his place for the French game.

Madigan is a bit of a flaky character. Ever since I've seen him in schools rugby, I've thought his temperament was poor, he has a habit of choking, and is not a good placekicker. Maybe that's just me being a "little" bias. But he looked the least likely of most academy graduates to make it. I've watched him feature through the years, displaying the poor goalkicking, but not being given a chance in many games to show whether he can handle the pressure now. His attitude has been questioned in the past, in a similiar way to Andrew Conway.


However, this season in particular, Madigan has shown a natural running game, and has one of the most wonderful passes a flyhalf has ever seen. He has a tendency to go for running options that aren't on, but while this is receding, at least he has the cajones to go for it. He has shown a willingness to improve and is capable of some piece of magic - something which Jackson, for all his solidity, doesn't look like doing.

He has shown improvements in goalkicking in recent seasons which is encouraging, but is still behind Keatley, and has shown a significant improvement on defence too.

Ian Keatley however seems the best goalkicker of the three, based on his percentages. Learning under O'Gara means he will learn how to control the game and kick for the corner, but he seems to natural want to run and pass it.

One thing that strikes me about Keatley is that he is very inconsistent. He has games like the one against the Wolfhounds, or when he came on against Edinburgh in round 5 where he is ineffective and has no bearing on the game. He lets other backs come into first receiver too often.
Then when I start to form this opinion of him, he plays like he did against Racing Metro in round 6 (albeit against a poor Racing side), where he was everywhere, creating and pulling defenders each way and was one of Munsters best performers.

He hasn't been getting the opportunites for Munster recently as O'Gara has been battling to remain in the squad and this has counted against him. I fear he may have missed his opportunity as the oldest challenger between these three.Next season will be huge for him and he needs to become Munster's no 1.

Bottom line; Jackson gets most game time, but is limited. He's shown some glimpses of more attacking prowess recently, but needs to work on it and will probably prove me wrong. Keatley is too inconsistent and more likely to be bad than good, and Madigan creates more, but question marks over attitude and bottle.

Madigan seems the best of the three in my mind; but with even younger stars Stuart Olding and JJ Hanrahan coming through, he may not be best for long.