Nick Timoney hoping to enjoy sweet taste of victory in Galway as struggling Ulster embark on daunting URC trip to face Connacht in inter-provincial clash

Nick Timoney has been forced to stomach more Sportsgrounds defeats to Connacht than he’d like down the years but, as the provinces prepare for another Christmas showdown, the backrower says his wins there are some of the sweetest he’s tasted in an Ulster shirt.

The ground now known as Dexcom Stadium, a wind-assisted boot away from Galway Bay, has long been one of the most inhospitable places to visit in the United Rugby Championship and its predecessors.

Going there needing a win has rarely been an assignment to relish, but Ulster head west on Saturday evening with a victory looking more and more like a necessity as they search for their first in 71 days.

While that includes a break for the Autumn Nations Series it also includes five defeats in succession, the latest of which was a loss on the final play against Munster last week.

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The run of fixtures hasn’t helped Richie Murphy’s side with Champions Cup clashes against French heavyweights Toulouse and Bordeaux sandwiched by inter-pro meetings with Leinster and Munster. And now the sandwich gets a post-Christmas reheat with another all-Irish meeting with Connacht. It’s one Timoney is licking his lips for.

“It’s been really tough (going to Galway) but, at the same time, for some of us some of our most enjoyable wins have been down there. Maybe it’s only one or two but the more challenging and the more tough a place it is to go the more the reward feels like when you win.

“It’s obviously a really tough place to go, they’re a really good team, they’re proud, especially at home, they’ll certainly be fired up.

“But our backs are against the wall as well as they probably feel theirs are.

“We just have to come out swinging and if we get it right the prize is massive, so we’re just really excited for it.”

Timoney noted that Connacht will be similarly frustrated heading into the game, feeling aggrieved by refereeing decisions they felt went against them in the defeat to Leinster last week, a situation given clear and controversial voice by winger Mack Hansen after the match.

They’ve also got the memory of the sides’ first meeting this season to fire them, when Timoney scored the winning try of a back-and-forth encounter on his 150th Ulster appearance.

It took everything Ulster had to emerge with the 32-27 win, with Connacht’s back row, as usual, giving Timoney and his team-mates plenty to think about.

“They’re really openly going at your breakdown,” said the Dubliner.

“It’s a pretty common trend that you get against Connacht, they’re coming really hard for that and I think, in fairness to them, the depth they have in the back row is incredible.

“I would say it’s probably their strongest position because you’ve got Cian Prendergast and he’ll offer something different to Shamus Hurley-Langton, he’ll offer something different to Connor Oliver and Sean Jansen, all these lads. “You have a fair idea of what you’re going to get, but there’s certainly nuances to it as well and with the form of those lads, and Paul Boyle, it’s certainly a big challenge.

“We obviously know them incredibly well so it’s a very personal one as well.”

Timoney, who missed the Munster match, starts at openside flanker on Saturday night, in a back row with Matty Rea on the blindside and James McNabney at number eight.

In total the team shows nine personnel changes from the one that started the Munster defeat, with Jack Murphy and Rory Telfer, both of whom came off the bench last weekend, making their first starts for the province. Telfer comes in on the left wing for Zac Ward, who sustained an ankle injury against Munster, while Murphy, son of head coach Richie, starts in place of Aidan Morgan at fly-half. Murphy could come up against his brother Ben, who has been named among the Connacht replacements.

There could also be a first ever Ulster appearance for centre Wilhelm de Klerk with the Academy centre named on the bench.