Brian O'Driscoll's terming Ulster Rugby a "bit of a basket case" on Off The Ball on Monday has cut some ice in the province.
O'Driscoll made the comments when asked about a Sunday Times story claiming that Joe Schmidt and David Nucifora are pushing Leinster to release either Joey Carbery or Ross Byrne to Ulster as a replacement for Paddy Jackson.
Potentially one of those, Carbery or Byrne, could leave a winning culture, a winning environment.
You look at someone like Jordi Murphy. I have to say, it can't be easy playing some of the best rugby of his life - both from a Leinster perspective but also from Jordi's perspective - where things are clearly not going right at Ulster.
They don't have a coach, [they're] a little bit of a basket case at the moment, and he's going up there to try and play his rugby from next year on.
The comments were dangled in front of Ulster coach Jono Gibbes on Tuesday, who refused to bite. "There is no point engaging in that sort of stuff because it doesn't help us".
Jacob Stockdale, however, has responded to O'Driscoll's comments. Speaking to the Joel Pattison of the Belfast Telegraph, Stockdale termed O'Driscoll's comments "ridiculous".
I think he called us a basket case, which, to be honest, I think is ridiculous. We are competing for the PRO14 play-offs, we are actually in quite a good place and I think he could probably count on his hands how many times he has been up at Ulster Rugby in the last five years.
So, I think the comments are pretty unfair.
