NO MATTER WHAT happens in Kingspan Ravenhill on Saturday night, Nick Timoney knows it has to be better than the seven-try thrashing they shipped to Vodacom Bulls at Loftus Versfeld last weekend.
47-21 was the final score. As bad a look as that is, it was helped significantly by late tries from Ben Carson and Stewart Moore, converted by James Humphreys. From the first whistle to the last, however, Bulls physically steamrolled the Ulster pack.
While Connacht don’t have that same power, they do have other very powerful attributes that the flanker acknowledges.
“The Bulls are a big physical team with some athletes; Connacht are maybe not the same size but they will bring that Irish edge that they have,” he said.
“So they will play the game that Irish teams pride themselves on playing, which is they’ll be very switched on, they’ll play their shape properly, they will be very hard at the breakdown, and they will be well-drilled with their set-piece stuff.”
“I guess it is different in a number of ways but no less challenging.”
Timoney will be coming up against another rival for the backrow positions in Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad, Cian Prendergast. It’s a challenge he enjoys.
“It’s always going to be the case when you’re playing against any of the provinces, especially as a back row where there are lads challenging for the Ireland team. We are all equally ambitious,” he said.
“But games like this, it is an important game in our season and that is where all the focus goes. Obviously I want to play well and help the team win, but I won’t be thinking about any selections. I’ll be just doing my best to help the team win.”
At 29 years old, Timoney will now make it 150 caps for the northern province. Although he is Dublin born, an alumni of Blackrock, he is a one-club man with Ulster being his only professional posting since 2017.
Back then, it was Rory Best who was the undisputed dressing-room leader. Now, those responsibilities are handed to Timoney, though he wears it lightly.
On reaching that tally, he says, “I’m excited but I’d always be reluctant to be too big into the milestones because in my head when I think of 150 caps, I think more of the journey over the last eight years than this weekend.
“It is an amazing honour. I would have possibly never of dreamt of getting 150 caps when I first started playing. I certainly remember the days of being delighted to get one, two or three.
“It is great and I just make sure that I never take it for granted, but there are a couple of lads coming in on 200 in the next couple of weeks if they play, so that is more impressive.”
He sees no reason not to target 200 caps, a tally that Andy Warwick is in line to reach at the weekend should he play.
“I don’t feel old — I know I am one of the older lads now apparently — I feel good and I feel excited and as motivated as I ever had been,” says Timoney.
“I come in every season thinking I can get better and keep improving, keep pushing different aspects of my game. Maybe when the day comes when I stop feeling like that, I will stop, but hopefully for now I’ll keep moving.”
International recognition has by and large eluded him. A call-up to the international squad in 2022 for the New Zealand trip was his last involvement.
He could have chosen many times to throw a pity party for himself on that front, but instead, he tends to find where improvements could be made in his game.
“I feel that I have been on the cusp of it for a long time. Maybe the bar just keeps moving a little bit. Maybe I haven’t been improving,” he states.
“I think with everything, there is always 5-10% more to improve. Even the best players in the world probably feel that same way.”
“I still feel there is 10-15% every week that I can still push and work towards and know I’ll never get there, but it is still possible.”
He adds, “I think it is encouraging because I don’t think anyone plays perfectly every week, so I’d struggle to see who is satisfied all the time that they are reaching 100%. For me, it’s good to know there is more in the tank to chase.”
“The day I don’t feel that way, I’ll struggle to keep going because I take motivation from feeling I can improve, where if I feel I am on the way down…”
Like many in the Ulster camp, they shook the sand from their feet on the way out of South Africa. The two defeats will have no bearing on what they do from here on in. Any negatives have quickly been spun into positives.
“If you look at a Charlie Irvine or a James McCormick making their first start, and they are playing against a pack with however many Springboks at Loftus — I know on the face of it, the score wasn’t crazy close, but it actually felt like we were kind of in that game and we could have got a bonus point or two in the end, and that must be motivating in certain ways,” he points out.
“I remember my first couple of games as well, we had a draw and a loss.”
“I certainly remember my second game against the Ospreys, we got hammered, but when you are so young and new, I felt like if I carried and was tackled by Tipuric, who was a Lion at the time, it almost felt to me that I was closer to being a proper player than further.”
“From my point of view, where a loss feels like a defeat, and as much as those lads want to be winning, a first, second, third cap, or a first start, that can be huge for lads and it puts them in a good place.”
