It’s Ireland camp now for Nick Timoney, which might be the preferable option in putting Saturday evening’s defeat at Cardiff behind him rather than sitting on a beach with all that time to reflect.
In fairness, the back-rower did do all he could to prevent Cardiff from opening their overhaul of Ulster’s 19-point lead early in the second-half, with his diving hit on a sliding Mason Grady stopping what looked a nailed-on score.
As things turned out, it wasn’t enough and, though clearly utterly deflated at being on the losing side at The Arms Park, he had to not only attempt to articulate what had happened but also remain upbeat at the province hitting back for their game at home to Leinster at the end of November.
Ulster’s Nick Timoney charges forward with the ball during his side’s defeat to Cardiff
“I have full confidence that we are going to come back,” insisted Timoney in the wake of the 21-19 loss.
“The place (Ravenhill) still has a good buzz about it and the team are striving every week to get better and better.
“The first-half (at Cardiff) was probably some of the best rugby we have played this year, so maybe we are seeing bits of that, but we’re not the complete thing just yet,” added the 29-year-old, who will be hoping to add to his three Ireland caps at some point in November’s four-game Autumn Test series.
“We have had a couple of good results and a couple of bad results over the last while,” he said of Ulster’s form with three wins and three losses, the latter all away from home, after the first six-game block.
“There are lots of little things that we want to improve on from week to week.
“Sometimes it can be hard when you are in the thick of it to make major improvements or adjustments, I certainly know all the players and coaches are not in need (of doing this), but it is beneficial to have a bit of time to maybe sort some of those things out when we have that first block of games to reflect on.”
Ulster’s Nick Timoney cuts a dejected figure following their defeat to Cardiff at The Arms Park
As usual, Timoney was pragmatic as he breaks from Ulster duty, and yet the deep disappointment at letting a game go which had seemed on course to bring the province their first away victory of the 2024/25 season was unmistakable.
“(It was) obviously disappointing,” he stated when reflecting on how Ulster, on the verge of claiming a try bonus point from what looked a winning position, had contrived to end up with just a losing bonus point.
“We started quite strongly in the first-half, and it was disappointing that we couldn’t keep that up in the second-half.”
As for actually explaining how this had all transpired after two tries from Jude Postlethwaite and one by Cormac Izuchukwu had helped the Ulstermen lead 19-0 at half-time, well, that was more tricky but Timoney still gave it a good go.
“We let things get away from us, and I felt like they felt they had momentum on their side and they made us pay,” he said.
“In the first-half, I felt we had more possession and more field position; our attacking shape was maybe a little bit cleaner and our set-piece was maybe a little better.
“And I just felt that in some of those areas, I felt they got on top in field position and possession, and we put ourselves under pressure with some of our discipline.
“We played well in the first-half but couldn’t match it for 80 minutes.”
There you have it. Shaking this one off will not be easy.