ANDY FARRELL’S CHALLENGE to Nick Timoney was his suggestion that the Ulster man “needs to take his game to another level” against Argentina, having made a big impact for Ireland over the last year.

“There’s more in him,” was Farrell’s motivating prompt.

Last July, the Ireland head coach had some even more frank words for Craig Casey before a game against Japan.

“I think sometimes he’s been a little bit too desperate to do well,” said Farrell of the Munster scrum-half. “I think sometimes that can get in your way a little bit.”

Farrell’s challenge was for Casey to mould his absolute desire to shine for Ireland into a composed, accurate performance. The kind of performance that Casey undoubtedly delivered for Ireland against Argentina last Friday night.

Casey and Timoney’s inclusions in the starting XV were the surprise picks by Farrell. This was a new type of challenge for them because they have only ever really had one starting chance each in Ireland’s frontline team.

And the pair of them took their chances against Argentina. These were two performances that will have enhanced their standing in the Ireland set-up.

For many years, it seemed that there wasn’t a strong back-up for Josh van der Flier at openside flanker. Ireland have even used number eight Caelan Doris in the role a few times. 

But now, there is not only serious back-up in Timoney but a genuine competitor for the number seven shirt. And the Ulster man can play at number eight, where he moved on Friday night after Sean Jansen was injured. Timoney could even play alongside van der Flier in the coming weeks, with Jansen, Doris and Jack Conan all missing.

At scrum-half, Jamison Gibson-Park remains a pivotal player for Ireland and is likely to remain the main man. Not that Casey will or should see it that way. He wants the number nine shirt.

His performance against Argentina was up there as Casey’s best in Test rugby. There was no hint of desperation in his measured showing.

Every international scrum-half has to kick well, and the left-footed Casey did exactly that, bringing a pleasing variety to this aspect of his performance.

Above, we see Casey’s first kick of the game, and it’s well-executed.

His box kick has a hang time of more than four seconds and travels roughly 22 metres upfield, which gives primary chaser Rob Baloucoune ample time to get underneath the ball and bat it back. Joe McCarthy snaffles the breaking ball and Ireland go on the attack.

Casey was consistent with his contestable box kicks, although Ireland would have liked to win more of them back.

While they often used contestable kicks to ‘exit’ from their 22, Casey showcased his longer kicking game on one occasion in the second half.

It’s an excellent kick from Casey as he finds touch beyond the Argentina 10-metre line just after Hugo Keenan’s hat-trick try.

Having just conceded yet another score, this long kick is particularly sickening for the Pumas. It also brings Ireland’s lineout defence into the game, and Ryan Baird steals the subsequent Argentina throw.

From that Baird steal, Casey comes up with another type of kick as he dinks a clever chip over the ruck with his weaker right foot.

Mack Hansen is the main chaser here, and while Casey’s kick rolls into the grateful arms of Argentina’s Bautista Delguy, the Ireland wing is obstructed from challenging him.

Ireland get a penalty for obstruction by Efraín Elías, so Ireland kick into the left corner and nearly score a try through Baird, who is held up over the tryline.

Farrell and assistant coach Johnny Sexton, who has a big influence on Ireland’s kicking game, will surely have enjoyed seeing Casey mix things up in this regard.

The scrum-half had another key kick in the first half as he backed up one Irish kick success with another.

First, Baloucoune wins back a Sam Prendergast garryowen.

Prendergast kicks on first phase from an Irish lineout on the right, as they target Argentina out-half Tomás Albornoz, who drops into the backfield when the Pumas are defending lineouts.

Baloucoune wins the contest against Albornoz, meaning Ireland are presented with a disorganised Argentinian defence.

Casey takes full advantage by scooping the ball up, assessing his options, recognising that there’s no backfield cover after Albornoz has come forward into the first contest, then nudging the ball behind.

Casey uses the outside of his stronger left foot in this instance and calibrates ideal power to get it behind the hastily retreating Albornoz but down in time to hit the grass and roll.

The moment after winning back a kick is often a good time to kick again, given that the backfield is usually exposed. Casey proves as much here as he rolls the ball into touch five metres from the Pumas’ line, putting them in a pressurised situation.

Again, Ireland’s lineout defence comes up trumps as Tadhg Beirne and Joe McCarthy force a choke tackle turnover.

Casey’s mature, balanced kicking was perhaps the highlight of his performance, and it had a big role in shaping the game. Scrum-halves generally kick the most for every team, so it’s a key job they have to nail. Casey did that.

His 11 kicks in play were the second-most in his Test career so far, only behind his 15 kicks against Georgia in torrential rain in 2025, according to Opta.

Similarly, Casey’s 277 kick metres against Argentina were his second-highest behind a whopping 406 metres in that Georgia game.

Opta also tracks playmaker data for scrum-halves, providing a percentage of the rucks they pass, carry, or kick from.

This data underlines that Casey has been kicking more often from rucks since the start of 2025. The Munster man has kicked from at least 10% of rucks in each of his six games with 20 minutes or more played since that point.

He had kicked from at least 10% of rucks only twice for Ireland before that, which underlines a tweak in his approach in the green jersey.

On Friday, Casey also brought great accuracy to his attacking contributions with ball in hand.

One of the things Gibson-Park is brilliant at is exploiting the shortside and Casey echoed that on a couple of occasions, including just before Prendergast’s try early in the second half.

As he arrives at the breakdown, Casey recognises that the Pumas are numbers down in the shortside, with lock Pedro Rubiolo [red below] late folding across as number eight Pablo Matera [blue] is initially attracted to the breakdown.

Casey is scanning, and it’s a sensible decision to attack on the left-hand side.

Casey takes a couple of steps and decides to give the ball to the powerful McCarthy. The Irish scrum-half is seemingly frustrated that his lock doesn’t just put his head down and accelerate forward, but Ireland still make ground.

When Casey plays to the openside on the next phase, they’re ready to strike and Prendergast scores.

But the good thing about Casey and the shortside was that he didn’t try to overdo it. He wasn’t trying to be Gibson-Park. He was just himself.

And with Casey, sometimes that means simply providing rip-roaring passes that allow other people to look good. Casey’s passing has always been his unique selling point.

The pass above launches the scoring phase for Keenan’s second try.

It’s a classy pass from Casey, who lasers the ball across the face of Jansen – the most obvious recipient – to instead find Stuart McCloskey, who can play out the back against the scrambling Pumas defence.

There’s something similar from Casey in the example below – which is one phase before the shortside exploration above – as he throws a similar face pass across Jansen to Timoney.

Again, the speed, length and accuracy of Casey’s pass allow Ireland to move the ball to width, and there is the potential for a break wide on the left.

With that in mind, Casey takes off on a pre-emptive support line ahead of the ball, moving cross-field but also slightly upfield in anticipation of a break.

While this attacking phase breaks down for Ireland as Hansen fails to connect with Robbie Henshaw, it’s positive intent from Casey.

Every good scrum-half runs these kinds of lines and there is often no reward, but the pay-off can be big when there is a break further out.

One of Gibson-Park’s biggest points of difference as a scrum-half is his defence. His speed across the ground makes him an excellent scramble defender, but he brings a bit of venom to his front-on tackling too.

Given that they’re usually the smallest players, scrum-halves always miss their fair share of tackles, but Gibson-Park brings more bite than most.

Casey takes pride in getting stuck in defensively too. He completed six tackles on Friday and would have been pleased with his part in one crucial turnover in the first half.

First, Casey works hard to jockey across the pitch, fighting his way past the decoy-running Matera, beyond wing Bautista Delguy and out onto powerful flanker Juan Martín González.

After his good work laterally across the pitch, Casey’s low tackle on González is effective and opens a window for Dan Sheehan to lead a counter-ruck effort.

Baloucoune follows Sheehan in and, having got back to his feet, Casey recognises the chance for a turnover as he too floods in.

Casey’s determined, robust work in contest with opposite number Gonzalo García draws a side entry from Juan Cruz Mallía and Ireland are awarded a penalty.

Ireland kick to touch on the right and score their first try from the resulting lineout.

This came after a classy kick from Albornoz had cleared Casey for the opening try of the game.

Ireland’s scrum-half often ends up defending on the edge of the line from lineouts, as is the case here, but they may discuss whether it’s possible to swap personnel in situations where the cross-field kick is such a threat.

Argentina don’t even have penalty advantage here – usually the cue to attempt an attacking kick – and it’s clear that they sense the opportunity.

Casey is 5ft 5ins tall, but his height isn’t the key point. Instead, he will probably have been disappointed not to judge the flight of the kick better.

It’s very difficult when turning back and not being able to keep the ball in sight, but had Casey been able to judge the landing point a little more accurately, he could have at least got into a physical contest with try-scorer Mateo Carreras, who is 5ft 8ins.

Any sort of bump on Carreras while obviously competing to catch the ball could have denied him a score. Even an arm near the ball could have been enough, but it’s a superb kick from Albornoz without the pressure-relieving penalty advantage.

Casey also slipped off a tackle attempt on Carreras for the second Argentina try.

This is a compromised position because Argentina have a 3-on-2 out wide after a flowing attack has left Ireland reeling. At this point, a try looks all but certain.

Casey is aware of the threat wider out and clearly hopes that a team-mate will track across on his inside to potentially deal with Carreras, but that’s not the case.

He ends up overchasing and leaving his inside shoulder exposed. Carreras has the power to burst beyond him and then ride a last-gasp attempt from Keenan to stop him.

Again, Casey would have wanted to make a bigger impact in the tackle, even just slowing Carreras more to allow someone else to finish the job, but it is a tough position to be in.

Yet there’s no doubt this was the kind of composed performance that Ireland boss Farrell has wanted to see from the scrum-half.

“He took responsibility, as he did during the week,” said Farrell of Casey. “He played nice and quick, certainly from the base, he was a threat there. His kicking was pretty good as well. So yeah, a good night for him. And for Nick obviously.”

Timoney made an obvious impact for Ireland against Argentina. 

He had a game-leading three dominant tackles last Friday, showcasing his defensive power and technique.

Timoney dips low to target Guido Petti’s legs in the instance above, before driving up and through him powerfully as he grips in behind Petti’s knees to destabilise him.

Importantly, Timoney doesn’t plant his knee on the ground before making contact with Petti.

Referees have been instructed to clamp down on ‘knee drop tackles,’ where the tackler’s knee is on the ground before they make contact with the ball-carrier, but Timoney gets his timing right as he dips as low as possible.

The big tackle below is an important one by Timoney as Carreras breaks through on kick return.

Timoney is working upfield after being part of the ruck from where Ireland kicked, and he times his dip into the tackle well again to take out Carreras’ legs with a powerful contact.

Timoney’s dominance means he finishes the tackle on top of Carreras, allowing him to pop straight back up onto his feet looking for a turnover.

Carreras has already offloaded the ball, so there’s nothing for Timoney to immediately target, but his work rate to get back into the game is rewarded at the very next breakdown.

Albornoz runs back after a loose pass from Matera but he’s chopped down by Andrew Porter and after Jansen dummies a jackal effort, Timoney swoops in to beat the lethargic Argentina clearout arrival.

This is high-quality stuff from Timoney to deliver back-to-back impactful actions for Ireland with a big tackle and a turnover in the space of 10 seconds.

Timoney had been close to winning a breakdown turnover only a few minutes before this, with Ireland defending in their 22.

He and Porter target the ball after a good chop tackle by Joe McCarthy.

They’re both cleared away but Timoney stays up on his feet and in the fight.

That allows him to be involved on the very next phase, which sees Jansen winning the crucial turnover.

Being able to deliver repeated efforts within single passages of a game is a key ability for forwards at Test level and Timoney is relentless in this regard.

As well as carrying the ball more than any other Irish forward with 11 carries against Argentina, Timoney was second-highest for arrivals at Irish rucks, with his 26 short only of Tadhg Furlong’s 27.

As important as the quantity was the quality of Timoney’s ruck work. According to Opta data, he made 12 genuine clearouts against Argentina, whereby he actively removed a defender to help ensure quicker ball for Ireland. That was three times more than any other Irish player.

Timoney made 10 tackles, but he was also top for defensive ruck arrivals with nine. He never stopped working hard in this regard, including in the 82nd minute when he chased back on Justo Piccardo after the Pumas centre broke out from deep.

Timoney helps Mack Hansen to complete the tackle and reloads onto his feet, showing a clear release before targeting the ball.

He might have been awarded a turnover on another day but with no clear tug of the ball, play continues.

Timoney did slip off one tackle in the build-up to Carreras’ try, with Santiago Chocobares’ against-the-grain line catching him off guard.

Argentina scrum-half García scoots off the base of the ruck, holding Timoney’s attention, and Chocobares comes across his blindside at speed.

It’s a brilliant line from Chocobares and a brave one, because if Timoney and Andrew Porter are able to get their heads up earlier, there’s scope for the Pumas centre to be levelled.

Instead, he thunders through the Irish pair. But overall, this was a convincing effort on both sides of the ball from Timoney. His physical efforts have impressed the Irish coaching staff across the past couple of seasons.

Opta’s data show that in this year’s Nations Championship, Timoney is in the top five Irish players for carries, line breaks, defenders beaten, metres gained, dominant tackles, tackles completed, attacking ruck arrivals, and defensive ruck arrivals.

When carries, tackles and rucks are combined, Timoney is second for Ireland, only just behind Tadhg Beirne.

Among all of the Irish forwards, Timoney is ranked fifth for gainline success percentage in the carry, although it’s worth noting that the four players ahead of him have all made fewer carries.

As well as doing so much of the grunt work in contact, Timoney would have been pleased to deliver with his passing game against Argentina, as he regularly got on the ball in Ireland’s forward pods and swept the ball out the back to their playmakers.

We saw one such example earlier after a long pass from Casey, while we get another below.

Timoney is in the middle of a three-man pod of forwards and passes out the back to Jamie Osborne, but only after posing a threat himself.

Timoney runs square at the defensive line, meaning he is running straight upfield and offering a ball-carrying threat.

Timoney totally engages the defender in front of him [red above] while simultaneously eyeballing the next defender outside, assessing his defensive decision-making.

James Ryan is a short tip-on pass option for Timoney and with the Ulster man keeping that option viable, Piccardo holds on Ryan [yellow above], which means he then struggles to catch up on Osborne when Timoney plays the ball out the back.

All of this means space is preserved wider out, and Keenan surges into it.

Timoney gets on the ball again on the next phase.

With Gibson-Park having had to clear out the ruck, van der Flier steps up at scrum-half and fires the ball to Timoney, who again plays a sweep pass to Hansen.

This is a different situation, with Timoney under more immediate defensive pressure from a flatter starting position. He does still take two darting steps at the line before passing, doing his best to keep defenders off Hansen for as long as possible.

Ireland nearly score off Hansen’s diagonal kick pass to McCloskey, but the ball doesn’t bounce up, and Rubiolo makes a big effort to cover across and claim it.

Timoney made a total of seven passes against Argentina, only one behind Ryan Baird and Tadhg Beirne.

He carried strongly too, covering 64 metres in his 11 thrusts, as well as breaking two tackles.

Timoney had a prominent role in the strike play for Sheehan’s try – even if McCloskey joked that “I would have loved it if he’d passed me the ball for the walk-in” – while he had a good carry just before Keenan’s second score.

The Ulster man was strong as a decoy at times too, including for Sam Prendergast’s try.

Timoney gave the impression of a man who is increasingly comfortable and confident in Test rugby.