Determination of Timoney is music to ears of McFarland
IF HIS early weeks in the job are anything to go by, then it would appear that Dan McFarland’s coaching mantra is to fight for every inch.
It’s a phrase uttered in each of his media briefings so far, indicative of the fight he is attempting to instil in a side that has often been accused of a somewhat brittle psyche.
You get the feeling that industrious back-rower Nick Timoney may well be just his sort of player.
The second half of the seasonopening win over Scarlets on Saturday was only a little over a minute old when Wales and Lions hooker Ken Owens took advantage of a missed tackle to burst through the Ulster line and motor his way under the posts.
The visitors trailed by two at the time, just as they would at the final blast of Marius Mitrea’s whistle, but it seemed a foregone conclusion that they were about to take the lead.
Timoney though, using the welldocumented speed that saw him make a success of sevens before focusing on the 15-a-side game, chased back to make the opposing skipper’s finish as awkward as he could. It seemed an academic act until the TMO intervened to check the grounding.
Much to the amusement of the Premier Sports team broadcasting the game, replays showed that Owens lacked anything that could be called a poker face, his frustrated expression revealing a knock-on and giving Ulster a reprieve.
The province have often spoken in recent seasons about the value of each and every match point on offer. Timoney’s tackle was likely the difference between taking one and four.
“I didn’t actually know he’d spilled it until he gave a pretty unconvincing claim to the ref,” laughed Timoney. “I sort of smelled a rat from that point.
“I was pretty lucky. We don’t want to rely on them dropping balls over the line, we have to stop them from getting there in the first place. I was happy obviously, but it was a stroke of luck.”
Meanwhile, Ulster have confirmed that loosehead prop Kyle McCall underwent elbow surgery that will keep him out of action for 12 weeks.
Also unavailable are Tom O’Toole (concussion), Rory Best (hamstring), David Busby (knee), Jean Deysel (knee), Louis Ludik (hamstring), Luke Marshall (knee), Marty Moore (calf ), Stewart Moore (knee), Tommy O’Hagan (perforated ear drum), Clive Ross (knee) and Jacob Stockdale (hamstring).