Despite suffering more European hardship, Ulster’s Nick Timoney believes that are still positives to take from Saturday night’s defeat at the hands of the Leicester Tigers.
Timoney’s early try helped establish an early 10-point lead as Ulster looked to be building on their recent away win to Connacht. But that was as good as it got as the more experienced English Premiership side pulled away for a convincing 38-10 win.
But Irish international Timoney maintains that by getting more big game experience, this new look Ulster team will be a force in the years to come.
“Just when you look at the demographics and who we’ve been playing, we’ve got a lot of young lads. We’ve got a lot of young lads who haven’t got a load of caps,” said Timoney.
“I feel like a lot of them are coming into themselves a bit and they are showing that they can play in games like this and they can be a real threat.
“Obviously, we didn’t put it together for 80 minutes but I think there are trends in the right direction.
“We saw it against Connacht a couple of weeks ago and I think we are still seeing bits of being a million miles from where we want to be but if we are going in the right direction, it gives us something to keep going with.”
Ulster’s injury jinxed season also shows no signs of slowing down.
Returning to the squad for the first time since October, full back Ethan McIlroy was forced off with what looks like a serious knee injury after only 23 minutes. Zac Ward’s evening was also cut short in the final quarter after being withdrawn due to a head injury.
It’s another blow to an already depleted backline that is currently without players like Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale and James Hume.
But Timoney feels that with more youngsters getting plenty of big game experience, Ulster will have one of the most experienced squads around when they are all fit for selection.
“I think it means that when we get a lot of guys back fit, we’ll be in an incredible place. Lads are getting an experience that they probably wouldn’t have got if the backline was fit or all the forwards were fit but they are growing into it.
“And just to make it abundantly clear, the reason we’re not winning these games isn’t because we’ve all these young lads playing. It’s all of us. There’s myself. There’s Hendy (Iain Henderson). There’s Andy Warwick and all these guys that have been around for years and we need to play better too.
“So, it’s a full team thing and I think the full team will be in a really good place certainly when lads come back and there’s competition. And there’s young lads who have played really well and put their best foot forward. I think in the long run despite losing these games, that in the long run we’ll be in a better place for it.
