Ulster backing for Jacob Stockdale going into Exeter return

The Ireland winger played in last season’s league-opening win over Glasgow and then spent the rest of the campaign on the sidelines with an ankle injury before eventually having surgery in January.

“When you’re a rugby player you want to play and, unfortunately for Jacob, it’s been 12 months and tough for when he first got injured it was like a couple of weeks and then a few more and then he misses 12 months,” said Soper. “But that’s psychologically, for someone like Jacob when he’s in the prime of his career...that’s pretty tough for him to take.

“He’s had a lot going on in his life outside rugby in those 12 months.

“And I think he looks in the best shape he’s been in the four or five years I’ve been here.

”He looks physically in a really good place, mentally he feels really good about getting started and we’re excited to have a player of his quality back.”

The Kiwi gave an upbeat injury assessment on lock Iain Henderson and centre James Hume - Soper reckons it will be sooner rather than later that the Ireland duo will return to the white shirt.

Captain Henderson missed the tour of New Zealand due to a knee injury, while Hume’s participation in the summer ended when he suffered a groin problem.

Both had surgery during the summer.

“They’re back doing some training but they’re going to be a few weeks yet before they’re playing, but they’re back...not for team training but on the pitch doing some running, (their absence) is injury-related, the bumps were picked up out in New Zealand,” said Soper. “They’re on return-to-play programmes at the moment.

“Ian had a bit of work needed on a hand that was going to need to be done anyway so we took the opportunity that, whilst his knee slowed him up, to do that as well.”

“James, his injury...it’s the sort of thing you take pretty slowly as you don’t want to get it wrong.

“He’s pretty determined to back last season up with another great year.”

Ulster made a host of signings during the off-season and Soper feels they will all get a chance against the English Premiership side.

“I think you’ll see them all,” he said. “They’re all really good guys and have settled in really well.

“I think it’s a pretty easy place to settle into and the players are welcoming and it’s a good place to work.

“We’re seeing good things from them on the pitch.”

As with all friendlies, the result won’t be the be-all-and-end-all.

“We’ve had some things we’ve worked on over the summer and things we’ve tried to improve and how we assess our performance on Friday night will be around those sorts of things rather than being distracted by the scoreboard in a pre-season game,” said Soper. “The way we’re trying to play, we’ll be looking for that evidence and seeing those things on the pitch.

“And, hopefully, we get a performance that matches it.”