JACOB STOCKDALE MUST go to bed every night expecting to wake up and find that this has all been one incredible dream.
With the clock deep in the red at the end of the first half of Ireland’s Grand Slam decider in Twickenham, Stockdale gathered the ball out on the left wing.
There was nothing obvious on — and then he did this.
With a beautifully measured chip, some dogged persistence, and the kind of fortuitous bounce that gives lucky charms their name, Stockdale played himself into Six Nations history.
The stat line: four and a half games played, seven tries scored; the first man ever to reach that tally in the Six Nations, and just one short of the all-time record shared by England’s Cyril Lowe (1914) and Scotland’s Ian Smith (1925).
There’s still time, you know.