Jared Payne stats in his first start of the year were highly unusual

Jared Payne has been rightly credited as Ireland's defensive "captain" for the past couple of years but he was doing a lot of delegating last night.

The 31-year-old returned to Ulster's starting line-up for the first time since the kidney injury he sustained against Australia on November 29. Payne played 20 minutes off the bench against Zebre, last Sunday, and put in an 80+ minute shift in the 19-3 victory over Treviso. He even kicked off the tryscoring proceedings by running a nice line and splashing down in the first half. In the latest episode of The Hard Yards [listen below], there was a good discussion over whether Payne should come straight in for his 20th Ireland cap, against Wales, next Friday. Mike McCarthy believes Rob Kearney should start at fullback while Johnny O'Connor advocated the case for Tiernan O'Halloran. I suggested Payne could do a fine job in the 15 jersey but he is also in the mix for outside centre. https://soundcloud.com/thehardyardssportsjoe/irelands-win-over-france-a-connacht-bromance-and-why-conor-murray-is-so-good-episode-4 Payne started in the 13 jersey for Ulster last night and his attacking stats were pretty impressive - 42 metres gained off 13 carries, with one clean break [for his try], five defenders beaten and two offloads. The Kiwi's tackling statistics were altogether rarer. The match statistics have Payne registered for '0 tackles'. That's 0 attempted, 0 landed. Treviso's players made 98 carries combined, as opposed to Ulster's 167. With so few carries, and hardly any pressure being built through phases, Payne was not alone in not having to make a single tackle. ESPNscrum also have Ulster fullback Craig Gilroy down for 0 tackles. Rob Herring [12] and Marcell Coetzee [11] were the top tacklers while the entire starting Ulster backline [six players] registered a total of 13 tackles, and Ruan Pienaar had seven of them. Spare a thought for Treviso fullback Luca Sperandio, who attempted three tackles and missed [or fell off] them all. Having taken some hefty knocks against New Zealand and Australia last November, Payne will be happy to have avoided any tackling trauma in squalid playing conditions last night. As for where Payne fits in for Ireland, well, the debate rages on... https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/837319377888362498