Ulster's assistant coach Joe Barakat hails Paddy Jackson's rise

Ulster assistant coach Joe Barakat praised the progress made by Ireland fly-half Paddy Jackson ahead of the European Champions Cup game against Bordeaux-Begles on Sunday.

Stade Chaban-Delmas will also witness two of Ireland's prominent fly-halves - Jackson and Ian Madigan - go head to head as they look to give their respective teams a victorious start in the campaign.

Injury to Johnny Sexton saw Jackson take the number 10 role for Ireland in their recent tour of South Africa while Madigan was on the bench. Recently, Madigan made a switch from the Irish province to the French club reducing his chances of featuring for Ireland and Barakat believes a strong performance on Sunday will allow Jackson cement his place in the Test squad.

"If you look at Paddy from last year to this year, physically he's almost grown from a boy to a man," Barakat told Press Association Sport of Ulster's 24-year-old playmaker Jackson.

"Physically he's changed and there's a lot of confidence that comes with that change as well.

"He's continuing to improve all the time, and you can't deny his impact on this Ulster team, the way he guides us around and what he demands from these players."

Earlier, Ireland performance director David Nucifora had warned that the players moving away from Irish provinces will have a disadvantage when it comes to national selection.

However, with Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt about to name the squad for the autumn internationals, all eyes will be on the two fly-halves, who might have to fight for a spot with Sexton likely to be named the front-runner for the number 10 spot.

Flanker Sean O'Brien continues to recover from the hamstring injury he sustained earlier in the year, while Sexton will miss Leinster's opening game with a minor hamstring injury.

Impressed with Jackson's showdown in South Africa, Barakat believes the 24-year-old has all the attributes needed to make it to the Ireland squad.

"He was selected as Ireland's starting, standout stand-off in those Tests in South Africa in the summer," said Barakat of Jackson.

"And he realised during those Test matches, 'where I'm currently at is adequate, but is that going to make me dominant?'.

"If you want to go from adequate or acceptable to dominant, there's got to be changes.

"And those changes cannot just be mental, they cannot just be tactical, they've got to be physical, because you want to have a greater impact on the game.

"And he's doing that. He's probably one of the fittest athletes in our squad, he's becoming a good sized athlete.

"The channel teams attack is the 10 channel. You've got to make your tackles, and you've got to make repeat tackles.

"You've got to be strong, you've got to have a level of endurance.

"You've got to tackle, get back to your feet and keep making good decisions even though you're tired. And he's really getting there."