European Challenge Cup: Ulster's Nick Timoney leads back row charge against Leicester

Timoney will start at number eight as Ulster seek to reach their first European final since 2012 on Friday

Between a run deep into the Challenge Cup and the chaotic launch of the Rainbow Cup, time to take stock has been in short supply at Ulster.

Amid the moving parts, it was in the most low-key of exits that Marcell Coetzee waved goodbye to Belfast and returned to South Africa.

A five-year stint that ended via injury in a season without crowds ensured the extraordinary Springbok would leave Ulster to a fanfare not befitting his outstanding, albeit injury-disrupted time with Ulster.

Of course the province have known of his exit for some time, and have been planning accordingly to best compensate for his departure with Leone Nakarawa signed for next season in the hope that the Fijian can help in carrying the mantle.

However, with good reason Dan McFarland would argue that preparations for losing Coetzee, and indeed any player of any standing at any moment, began when he arrived in 2018.

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McFarland's greatest success to date has arguably been the squad depth he has developed. The competition for places is, in most positions, as strong now as it has been for some time.

This season's relentless schedule has fuelled that drive for depth, with regular rotation a necessity as opposed to a luxury.

The purpose of such a project is to ensure that when the club is dealt a blow as hefty as Coetzee leaving during a European cup run, they can withstand it by handing over the reins to someone like Nick Timoney.

With 77 Ulster caps to his name, the 25-year-old has nothing to prove regarding first-team prowess. And yet, as the squad's most natural number eight, eyes have turned towards the Dubliner as Ulster look at life without Coetzee.

"For a while I'm sure, until he's long gone, he'll be talked about so it's an inevitable discussion," accepts Timoney.

"Copying him is not something I've actively tried to do but I'd be naive in saying that playing and training with him in the last four or five years didn't impact me in certain ways.

Coetzee (left) will play for the Bulls next season having returned home to South Africa

"Someone who's so good and has such a style and charisma about the way he plays, I think it's hard not to pick up on bits of it."

There is no direct comparison between Timoney and Coetzee, nor is there an expectation for him to simply pick up where Coetzee left off.

The responsibility to offset Coetzee's absence does not fall on Timoney alone but on Ulster's entire back row, but it is hoped that the Dubliner will now cement himself as the lynchpin.

"Any team in the world is going to miss Marcell Coetzee. I'd rank him up there in the top three or four back rows [in the world] the way he's performed in the past couple of years," says flanker Jordi Murphy.

"Nick's performance in the first half last week [against Connacht] was absolutely outstanding. His carrying was incredible, he was really strong over the ball, made some really good collisions.

"He has been an incredible asset for us this season. It wasn't just last weekend, he's been playing some really good consistent rugby all year."

'Running game not my only style of rugby'

For his part, Timoney's natural strengths have always been clear to see. The former Ireland sevens player possesses speed that is the envy of most back rows, and with his 114kg frame can hit lines and eat up huge yards in brutal bursts that appear almost impossible to stop.

That has been his point of difference since he joined in 2016. But it is in other areas; the collision and the breakdown, where a back row can really make a name. Where Timoney's speed sets him apart, it is in these facets that he wants to bring his game to the next level.

"I've made a conscious effort over the last while to make sure it's not my only style of rugby," he says.

"I was maybe a little bit guilty of that when I first started playing for Ulster; that was my main strength and that was what I went to.

"This year, both as a team and individually, I've been trying to develop a lot of other aspects, some of the line-out stuff, mauling, getting better at the breakdown and things that are more applicable all year round and in different types of games and conditions."

Most expect Friday's Challenge Cup semi-final at Welford Road to be a game won on tight margins, with Leicester's powerful brand likely to lend itself to a game decided by the side that can dominate the collisions.

It is on this stage, with a European final up for grabs that Timoney and the rest of Ulster's pack can lay down a marker for life after Coetzee.

The plan is not to replace the irreplaceable, but to vindicate the work that McFarland and company have done in ensuring that Ulster's pursuit of silverware will not hinge on the presence of any one player.