No need for Ulster to panic just yet, says Nick Timoney ahead of crunch clash with Connacht at Kingspan Stadium

The Kingspan Stadium club are currently 13th in the table ahead of the first interpro of the season when fourth-placed Connacht visit Belfast on Saturday night.

Ulster started the campaign with a last-gasp win over defending champions Glasgow and picked up a try bonus point in the defeat against the Lions, before leaving Pretoria empty-handed last week against the Bulls.

Timoney, who will make his 150th appearance for the northern province, believes the side are in a good place having already completed the South African trip.

“We definitely would have wanted to be better and we would have wanted more from our trip to South Africa, but it is certainly not crisis talks because we know what challenges we have been through,” Timoney said.

“Through the first three games [Ulster earned] five points and I don’t know how many new caps, debuts and young lads coming through; it is not exactly where we want to be but it’s not a disaster either.

“As we all know, South Africa is a tough place to go. When you look at the league table, it's early days but we're not sitting where we want to be.

“You can take that as money in the bank in that there's a lot of teams that have to go there and, fair enough, some teams might win but it's proven statistically to be a tough place to go and win. Having that trip out of the way improves the relative position of where we are.”

Timoney is expecting a different challenge from Connacht up front than Ulster encountered against the Bulls last week.

He added: “The Bulls are a big physical team with some athletes, Connacht are maybe not the same size but they will bring that Irish edge that they have.

“So, they will play the game that Irish teams pride themselves on playing which is they’ll be very switched on, they’ll play their shape properly, they will be very hard at the breakdown and they will be well drilled with their set piece stuff.

“I guess it is different in a number of ways but no less challenging.

“Connacht would be pretty open about the breakdown being a big strength of theirs and that being something that they would target when they play us.

“Between Cian (Pendergast) Connor Oliver, Josh Murphy and (Shamus) Hurley-Langton etc, they are going to go hard at the breakdown as they always do, so we need to be switched on and put some pressure back on them.”

As with every interpro there are personal battles all over the pitch that take on even more importance with the November internationals on the horizon.

Timoney continued: “It’s always going to be the case when you’re playing against lads, against any of the provinces – especially as a backrow where there are lads challenging for the Ireland team – we are all equally ambitious.

“But games like this it is an important game in our season and that is where all the focus goes. Obviously I want to play well and help the team win but I won’t be thinking about any selections, I’ll be just doing my best to help the team win.”