Ulster are excited about the potential of Tom Stewart… here’s why
As soon as he came, off he went again.
Man of the match on his first start, Ulster will have to wait to see Tom Stewart again for a while but thankfully, it is not because he limped off just short of the hour mark on Saturday night. Instead, his promise has been rewarded with a trip to South Africa over the next few weeks with Emerging Ireland.
Stewart has been a name floating around the Ravenhill faithful as one to look out for, the next cab off the development rank for a while now. Saturday night went a long way to showing why Dan McFarland, and clearly Andy Farrell, are burgeoning fans of the 21-year-old former Belfast Royal Academy student.
In many ways, Stewart’s introduction looks common to a handful of other exciting Irish hookers that have caught Farrell’s eye. Rónan Kelleher and Dan Sheehan emerged in recent years as dynamic, athletic, powerful ball carriers with good footwork but inconsistent lineout results early in their careers.
Stewart, admittedly after the small sample size of just one professional start, looks in many ways similar.
13 of his 15 lineout darts found an Ulster jumper on Saturday. Not a horrendous return, but he was fortunate that a one-handed Alan O’Connor take and a throw that was too high for Sam Carter still resulted in Ulster ball.
The set-piece isn’t as fun to analyse and thankfully for exciting players like Stewart, it can be a straightforward fix. What is not easy to introduce is raw athleticism and the ability to make good decisions on the ball; it looks like Stewart has that in spades.
The try undoubtedly takes the headlines. In many ways it is a very clever maul set up from Ulster, keeping the throw within the 15m so the Connacht defence still has to stay back with the referee’s arm up in the air.
This means that when Paul Boyle (8) and Dave Heffernan (2) get their wires cross and both needlessly enter the defensive maul, there is no defender on the edge, leaving a 10 metre gap between Stewart and the defenders standing between him and the line. Boyle actually realises he is not needed in the maul and pops out just as Stewart speeds past him.
That is too big of a hole for someone of Stewart’s athletic profile. His first step speed plus his power is more than enough to work past Conor Oliver and Kieran Marmion for a try on his maiden start.
It may have been the passage that led to a score, but that wasn’t actually Stewart’s most impressive piece of play.
Later, in the 51st minute, Stewart peels off a maul again only this time, with the set-piece much closer to the line, the Connacht defence is able to sit much closer and make the finish more difficult.
Regardless, in a much smaller pocket of space, Stewart shows incredible footwork to step passed Shamus Hurley-Langton and come within inches of a double. Is there an argument that he could have used his permitted reach to actually score? You be the judge of that, but Nathan Doak did touch down moments later.
Most pleasing of all from an Ulster point of view? Stewart’s ability to problem solve.
There are few opportunities for an athletic hooker to show off their carrying threat when looking for the perfect gap off the back of a maul. If the chance is wasted, potential attacking momentum goes to the wayside.
This happens in the 8th minute. From the back of the maul, Stewart did not keep his head up sufficiently to spot that Dave Heffernan, instead of sitting on the side of the maul, is directly behind it. Whether he didn’t look in that direction or is blind sighted by the bodies in front of him, Stewart thinks the gap is there and is duly hauled to ground by Heffernan (circled) who comes out from behind the maul.
After that, for his try and near try analysed above, Stewart’s head is up and on a swivel the moment he joins the back of the maul, unlike before. His scanning (shown by arrow) is much better and as a result, so is his ability to time his run perfectly. In other examples from Saturday, his vision allows him to make the correct call to not run when the gap isn’t there.
Other, less memorable moments certainly highlighted other aspects of Stewart’s game. He can pick a support line, as shown in the 43rd minute when he would have had a run to the line had Rea got his offload away, while his carrying and decoy running in forward pods looked solid.
Footwork, power, good speed for a front row and an ability to problem solve within games. It may be too early to think Stewart can become the third hooker in Farrell’s Ireland squad with such a profile, but similar performances down in South Africa combined with a season full of them in Belfast won’t leave him far off.
