Archive June 29, 2025

Nick Timoney admitted that his last appearance in Ireland was “a long time ago now.”

The 29-year-old has found the test game to be more challenging than the regular player in an inconsistent Ulster team.

The back row was a late addition for the same November’s Test against Argentina after making his debut for Andy Farrell’s side against the USA in July 2021, and he was sat in his Belfast home the day before the game, and he then started playing against Fiji a year later.

He hasn’t played since that game, which he did three years ago, despite being in a number of squads in recent years, including touring parties to New Zealand and South Africa.

Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan, Peter O’Mahony, Caelan Doris, and the odd man out making an impact off the bench have been Farrell’s loose forward trio consistently choosing three.

However, there are rarely opportunities for impress for back row hopefuls in Test matches against Georgia on Saturday and Portugal a week later when the former pair are away with the British and Irish Lions, O’Mahony retired, and Doris is injured.

“I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when I was frustrated,” I said. I’ve definitely experienced times when I feel like I’m very close to it, and I’ve felt like I should have given it a shot and jumped in with it, Timoney said.

In the summer squad, Paul O’Connell will be in charge, with regular head coach Farrell serving as Lions duty, along with the likes of Cian Prendergast, Gavin Coombes, and Max Deegan.

Despite being successful in their respective provinces, each has had its own struggles to get selected ahead of Ireland’s established options.

Being a realist, you enter a lot of camps and are aware that you are not necessarily at the top of the pecking order, Timoney said.

“Every other lad is desperate to play, and the game against England is opening the Six Nations or something similar, and it still kills you a little bit every time you’re not announced or you’re not in the team.”

In the end, if you truly value playing for Ireland enough, you have no choice but to put more emphasis on improving and working harder, which is exactly what I try to achieve.

Timoney, who is now 29 years old, claims that he will still “come into every camp believing that this will be the case when he makes his real, international breakthrough.”

Timoney is well-versed in at least one star from Georgia’s past, despite having only sevens international experience against Saturday’s opponents.

He would frequently search YouTube for clips of the best back rows of the era as a youngster. Regular viewers included Sebastien Chabal, Sean O’Brien, David Wallace, and Stephen Ferris, but Mamuka Gorgodze, who racked up a vengeance, was a particular favorite.

“I have hours of Mamuka Gorgodze footage that I watched as a child. I used to watch his highlight video a lot of the time, “told Timoney of the former Montpellier back row, who was known as “Godzilla.”

There was a 10-minute compilation video of Mamuka Gorgodze playing a lot of European nations for Georgia, full of clips from them playing Poland, Russia, Spain, and other stuff when you were younger. As you would with lots of different rugby players that were in your position and kind of looked up to, you would look up some of their clips, their highlights.

Under former Leicester Tigers and Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill, Timoney anticipates a significant challenge in Tbilisi while the undoubtedly quicker Davit Niniashvili is the country’s current star.

You won’t have an easy game against them because they’re big, physically, and passionate, he said.

We know what’s coming because we’ve seen that with a lot of their performances over the past few years.

In their 0-23 to 0-16 All-Ireland victory over Dublin, Tyrone boss Malachy O’Rourke praised the attitude of his players.

The Red Hands’ substitutes scored late goals to pull them out of the Dubs in a tight and heated match.

And O’Rourke was pleased that his team endured the entirety as they reached their first All-Ireland semi-final since 2021 and won the first championship game against Dublin since 2008.

“I’m happy for them all to cross the finish line and pass.” You have to acknowledge that you are facing a high-quality opponent and that you are not going to have it all your own way, he told BBC Sport NI.

“I’m delighted with the boys’ way they dug, defended, and managed to get some good scores.”

O’Rourke expressed his satisfaction with the contributions made by the entire squad, especially in the second half, despite the fact that the conditions made the match even more difficult.

“We were a little let down by how we played in the first half, but the two-pointers kept us in the game and gave us a point.”

We felt more in us because we cheaply used unforced errors and Dublin’s increased pressure on us. We managed to turn the table back half and put more pressure and urgency on them, he continued.