Ulster's Nick Timoney relishing European Champions Cup clash with Leinster

Nick Timoney – Ulster’s man-of-the-match in Saturday night’s crucial 22-11 win over Sale to book their place in the knockout stages – is relishing another clash with his native province despite Ulster’s poor record against Leinster.

Ulster have only two league wins in Dublin since 1999, while their record in one-off shoot-out games is worse.

In the 2012 European Cup final at Twickenham, Leinster beat Ulster 42-12, which remains the largest winning margin in a final.

The 2020 quarter-final was a closer affair at the Aviva Stadium, with Leinster triumphing 21-19.

In domestic competition, Ulster faced the old nemesis in the semi-final stages in 2011, 2014 and 2016 – losing all three.

The sides also met in the 2013 Pro12 Grand Final. Ulster had the right to host the game but, due to the redevelopment of Ravenhill, it was moved to the RDS in Dublin, with Leinster winning 24-18.

“Realistically you are not going to win the competition unless you beat Leinster this year so why the hell not?” said Timoney. “One of the most memorable games was the last time we played them, in that quarter-final in Europe.

"I know we lost that and I think we are a better team now than we were then and we pushed them pretty close.

“They are obviously unbelievable, and they are playing pretty well but we know them better than any of the other teams left in the competition, so it is certainly going to be fun.”

Timoney had no extra motivation going into the Sale game, despite producing a man-of-the-match performance after learning he’s been omitted from Andy Farrell’s Ireland Six Nations squad 48 hours earlier.

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed not to get into the Ireland squad, but I’d like to think that was not what was motivating me this week,” he said. “I was obviously devastated not to get in the Ireland squad but if I thought I was more motivated to play this week after not being personally selected when results have been going the way they have been, who am I to have as a team-mate.

“It is what it is...I didn’t get picked, I was obviously devastated but at the same time I can’t be crying off about that when things haven’t been the way that they should be at Ulster.

“I really don’t care that much about man-of-the-match awards.

"It was incredibly pleasing to go and get the win because we desperately needed that...just for the whole momentum of our season and just to prove to ourselves where we stand and we have that bit of resilience.

“Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong for the last many weeks.

"So I was delighted from that point of view, it felt like a squad.

"We went and manually took what we needed to and sort of get ourselves back in the right direction.”

Ulster face another massive home game on Friday night in the URC against the second-placed Stormers.

“There are a million reasons why it is an important game to win,” said Timoney. “It is another home game, it puts us in a good position in the league, it could almost wipe away what has gone on over the last six weeks in terms of everything seems a lot better coming off the back of two wins...we’d be in a strong position in the league and in the knockout stages of Europe.”