Top class.

No one was more hurt by the defeat to Leinster on Saturday than Ulster’s Jacob Stockdale.

The Ireland international winger scuffed a chance in the second-half of their Champions Cup quarter final encounter, failing to ground the ball after a sensational break up the touchline.

He’s been criticised by fans and pundits alike – but rather than hide from his mistake, the 23-year-old has put his hand up and publicly apologised to the Ulster faithful with a heartbreaking statement on social media.

Even though it was completely unnecessary. But that’s just the kind of player he is. But that’s not all he did. He also made a special request to captain Rory Best after the game, asking could he speak in the changing room and apologise to his teammates – even though once again, his apology was completely unnecessary.

“He came over to me when the boys were doing the lap and he apologised and said ‘I want to speak in the changing room,’” Ulster captain Rory Best explained

“So I said ‘what for?’ and he said ‘you know what for, I need to apologise.’ I said ‘you don’t need to apologise because with the way you played and some of the moments you had in that game and there are very few wingers who would even be across to try that’ and he said he needed to.

“It’s also important that the players feel that, they take responsibility, but they have their message the way they want it. I said ‘if you’re sure you want to do it, by all means you can have the floor.’

“He said something along the lines of what he said on social media and it was like a moment in the House of Commons, there was uproar in the changing room, everyone was trying to back him up but we just had to calm down.

“This Ulster squad for the last 12 months, we’ve based a lot of what we do around how strong collectively we are and this is just an example of ‘let’s see how strong we can be’ and how we bounce back together. No one would ever hang a player as good as Jacob and as likeable as Jacob.”

[The42.ie]