Ulster have to be 'on point' to secure win against Dragons, says Jacob Stockdale

Ulster now turn their attention to the United Rugby Championship in a bid to win their first trophy in 17 years.

They currently sit third in the table and have already secured a home quarter-final but have ambitions of overhauling the second-placed Stormers.

Stockdale, armed with a new two-year contract at Kingspan Stadium, feels Ulster can beat anyone in a big game.

“We do believe that on our day, if we're playing our top level rugby, we can beat anyone in Europe,” said the Ireland winger.

“We've shown that over the years but it's about putting in that performance at the right time.

“We look back at the games and the areas that we feel like we could do better.

“There's always going to be stuff you can improve on and the two main things for us (against Leinster) was probably our decision-making in the backfield in terms of how me managed Lowry's left boot – we got caught there a couple of times and then our breakdown – they were probably the two main things we felt we could have done a lot better.”

Stockdale is relieved to be staying with his home province beyond this season after penning a new deal.

“It was a no-brainer for me, it was a frustrating season for me last time in terms of not being able to get on the pitch,” he said.

“It was during that time I realised just how much I missed it.

“Getting back on the pitch this season has been brilliant, I'm just happy to be sticking around for another couple of years and seeing what we can do with a very exciting squad.

“It can be a wee bit of a nervy process when you're negotiating and you're thinking that every game counts in terms of what you're going to be offered.

“There's a lot of mental load in that sense. It's good to be clear of that and to be able to play rugby with the security of knowing that I'm definitely going to be here for the next two years.”

If Ulster are to overhaul the Stormers they will probably need to take the maximum five points against the lowly Dragons at Kingspan Stadium on Friday night.

“We're going to make sure we do everything we can to try and secure that home semi,” Stockdale continued.

“Hopefully Munster do us a favour over in South Africa against the Stormers.

“We'll see how the ground lies after that, all we can do is try and get ten points out of the next two games and hope that the Stormers slip up somewhere.

“The Dragons are a good team – they probably just haven't got the wins or the performances that they want to have,” he added.

“You look at the team that they have on paper and there's a lot of very impressive players in there.

“They're going to be hurting from that Glasgow game and we're very aware of that. For us to get five points from this game we have to be on point.”