Timoney seizing his timely opportunity
No.8 delighted to be proving his worth ahead of Coetzee’s exit
A FINE sense of timing is a valuable habit to possess as a backrow forward. Few of late have displayed better than Ulster’s Nick Timoney.
Ahead of tomorrow night’s Challenge Cup last-16 clash with Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop, not only is the 25-year-old enjoying his best string of form in an Ulster jersey, but his strong run of performances have come at exactly the moment his favoured jersey was unexpectedly left up for grabs.
When Ulster’s European season began in the Champions Cup pool stages back in December, the former sevens player was conspicuous by his absence, not in the match day 23 for the loss to Toulouse at Kingspan Stadium but instead turning out for the ‘A’ side against Munster at the same venue the next day.
That selection didn’t go his way that week was no isolated incident either and he admits to harbouring something of a “chip on the shoulder” when he did belatedly get his chance later that month.
If the fact that his opportunity arrived at precisely the moment superstar Springbok Marcell Coetzee announced he would be departing for home at the end of the season felt fortuitous, there has been nothing lucky about the way Timoney has grabbed the chance with both hands.
While no one player will be left to shoulder the responsibility of replacing the man on Thursday voted PRO14 Players’ Player of the Year, his erstwhile understudy excelling during the soonto-be Blue Bull’s injury-enforced absence of late has certainly softened the blow of his impending exit.
“Obviously there’s going to be opportunities there,” Timoney said of his reaction to the seismic transfer news back in December. “There’s always chances and it’s about timing. It certainly wasn’t a case of somebody calling me over and saying, ‘He’s leaving, you can take this’.
“There was a while when we were both playing No.8, he was the first choice and I was the second choice but I wasn’t involved a whole lot. I guess it was good timing but it wasn’t planned that way.
“His announcement about leaving came at a time when I’d hardly played in two or three months and I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder.
“It is a chance, and that’s part of it, but I think it’s more coincidental than anything.”
Coincidence or not, Timoney is not the only back-rower to have lifted his performance level since news of the switch emerged.
Jordi Murphy, too, has enjoyed something of a purple patch that, like Timoney, goes back to the Christmas inter-pro victory away to Connacht.
Two products of the famed Blackrock College line, Timoney was well aware of Murphy’s talents long before his fellow Dubliner made the familiar move north in the summer of 2018.
“Jordi Murphy was a pretty big deal when I was a first year in Blackrock,” Timoney recalled. “He was the man. He was five years ahead of me in school so I looked up to him rather than having much interaction with him.
“I remember being at his Junior Cup final when he was 15. His crop in school were the dream team and he was the captain of that side.
“I’ve been watching him a long time. Since then he’s beaten the All Blacks, he’s won Grand Slams. His experience and what he’s been through, everything that we want to win as a team he’s won, so he knows what it takes.
“He’s had a lot of caps, played at the highest level, beaten all the best teams in the world. When you think about knowing what it takes to perform consistently at a high level in the back-row, he’s done it, he has that knowledge.
“He’s been going well, that sort of happens in a back-row, people get a run of games, they put some performances together, but Jordi’s consistency is the thing.
“He’s been at such a high level from such a young age, it’s definitely something that you try and replicate.
“I’ve known all about Jordi for a long time. It’s pretty cool playing with him.”
If Ulster are to advance to the quarter-finals of Europe’s second tier competition at the expense of an in-form, but muchchanged, Harlequins side then both Murphy and Timoney will likely have to be to the fore once more.
While more accustomed to the Champions Cup — indeed, this is the northern province’s first ever game in this competition — the carrot of ending this season with that long-sought first piece of silverware since 2006 is apparent, especially having once again fall
en short of Leinster’s benchmark in the PRO14.
“It was frustrating,” Timoney added of watching his native province win a fourth consecutive league title with victory over Munster last weekend. “To have the season that we did and not really get the reward for it in terms of play-off rugby in the PRO14 was obviously frustrating. Having won the same number of games as the two teams sort of felt that you were missing out.
“It’s the main reason that you play, to win stuff. Seeing other teams be successful, it’s tough when we haven’t been there for so long.
“As a group ourselves, we’ve never been there. It’s always frustrating even in a season when you do well, if you don’t win ultimately you’ve sort of failed so finishing this one out with a trophy would be incredible. It’s good to have the competitions that are straight in at the deep end now to get all that energy and frustration out and see what we can do.”
After Timoney’s run over the last few months, for the team to show the best of themselves at this most opportune of times would only be to follow in their No.8’s lead.