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<\/p>\nMost players will tell you that they are willing to wear any jersey if it means getting into an Ireland side.<\/p>\n
Nick Timoney is putting his money where his mouth is.<\/p>\n
It’s always interesting to see the fine details on an Ireland matchday team-sheet. Unlike many other top Test nations \u2013 South Africa aside \u2013 Andy Farrell goes to great lengths to ensure positions are covered.<\/p>\n
The fear of having to go to uncontested scrums and drop a player is the main reason for that. When they submit their official team-sheet, the coaches have to mark X beside a player if they have trained and can scrummage at loosehead, tighthead or hooker.<\/p>\n
Most of the Irish front row players can cover multiple positions; taking last week as an example, R\u00f3nan Kelleher and Thomas Clarkson can cover loosehead prop as well as their normal positions. Tom O\u2019Toole \u2013 as we know already – is an ambidextrous prop, while Jeremy Loughman was marked as available to cover across the full front row.<\/p>\n
The unusual one that jumped off the team-sheet was Nick Timoney, openside flanker and now a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency hooker.<\/p>\n
This time three years ago, the flanker actually spent pre-season training in that position for Ulster, who were short on numbers with Rob Herring and Tom Stewart in international camp, and James McCormick injured.<\/p>\n
“I spent the whole – however long that pre-season was – scrummaging and throwing,” he says, when he is asked about it this week.<\/p>\n
“Enjoyed it to be fair, but nothing really much came of it.<\/p>\n
“I played 20 minutes [at hooker] against Leinster, I think, in the pre-season game. But I tell Fogs [scrum coach John Fogarty] every week that I’ll do it again if he wants. It’s yet to actually come up.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Fogarty\u2019s own words, Timoney (above) is “a very good scrummaging hooker”, and the fact that he is listed as an option for the front row suggests they wouldn\u2019t balk at putting him in there, even if they would hope it never comes to it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unusual, but not unheard of. The Springboks won a World Cup with back rows Marco van Staden and Deon Fourie as their back-up options at hooker.<\/p>\n
And Timoney says if even that small bit of versatility helps his case in getting selected, he\u2019s silling to chip in anywhere.<\/p>\n
“If you can offer something, in case of emergency, it’s pretty niche. I’m sure it’s unlikely that I’ll end up really needing to play hooker, but, I mean, being a rugby player is my full-time job, so I have plenty of time to work on things.<\/p>\n
“I guess, a lot of hookers would have been backrows at some point as well. I’ve been making the joke for years that they’re all failed backrowers, so yeah, I don’t know if I was a failed backrower for a few months?” he jokes.<\/p>\n
That remark feels prescient, given where Timoney was in his career back then, and where he is now, a few weeks shy of his 30th birthday.<\/p>\n
His summer training as a hooker in Belfast would have been a frustrating one for the Dublin native, who wasn\u2019t even in the wider Ireland training group, let alone part of the World Cup squad.<\/p>\n
In the last year, however, he caught the eye of Farrell once again, and has been an influential presence in the side.<\/p>\n
![\"8](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/002372ad-614.jpg\"\/)
\nNick Timoney scored a try on his Six Nations debut against France<\/p>\n
He had to wait until he was 30 to make his Six Nations debut, but after scoring a try off the bench in an impressive cameo against France in February, Timoney played in all five games \u2013 starting versus Wales \u2013 while he had another strong appearance from the bench last week against the Wallabies, which has been rewarded with a starting berth against Japan on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Up until then, he was worried his time had come and gone.<\/p>\n
“I definitely believed it wasn\u2019t going to happen multiple times, yeah.<\/p>\n
“Just from being 29 and not getting in the wider squad for the Six Nations [in 2025] when I actually thought I was playing alright for Ulster, you’re kind of like, ‘Jeez, if I’m not even in the picture now, are there that many more gears left?’<\/p>\n
“I’ve always kind of thought that maybe if I had a chance I’d be able to take it, but I think I’ve said before, but I think it’s credit to the Irish rugby and the coaches who are being open-minded enough because I’m sure in many countries, 30-year-olds don’t make their Six Nations debuts.<\/p>\n
“I obviously feel more part of it now than I ever have. Not that I didn’t feel part of it before, but having played only three games in the first four years of my involvement with the squad, you certainly feel on the fringes a bit more.<\/p>\n
“But to have been lucky enough to get picked as much as I had this season, I’m obviously loving it.”<\/p>\n
His reward this week could be a starting role against Japan, as Ireland look set to make several changes to their side from last week\u2019s win against Australia.<\/p>\n
“Everyone wants to start. You want to play 80 minutes and start,” Timoney added.<\/p>\n
“Certainly, I’ve always tried to pride myself on being the lad who’s dependable and they can rely on to play 80 minutes the whole time if needed, and not just 30 minutes here and there.<\/p>\n
“But yeah, I’ve loved being on the bench. It’s a really enjoyable thing to come on and feel like you can try and make a difference. But you certainly never want to be the guy who’s accepting of being on the bench. So you’ve got to keep pushing as well.”<\/p>\n
\n
Listen to the RT\u00c9 Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most players will tell you that they are willing to wear any jersey if it means getting into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-540472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}