"Incredibly Physical" - Ireland's Stuart McCloskey impressed by Ulster teammate Nick Timoney's Six Nations debut

The trio certainly did their province proud, with Timoney heralded as a stand-out impact player from the Ireland bench upon his Six Nations debut. The back row could well have played his way into the starting XV for Ireland's upcoming clash against Italy, as an in-form 'Azzurri' arrive at the Aviva for a second round Test on Valentine's Day.

Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey got the nod to start in the centres, following Robbie Henshaw's knee injury and the discipline enforced ban to Bundee Aki. A positive stand-out for Ireland saw McCloskey offload to his provincial teammate Timoney to play him into space, before the back row raced away across the try-line to get his side on the board at the Stade de France. Speaking to RTE Radio, McCloskey was impressed by the impact his club mate brought to the hard fought Clash in Paris.

"I thought a couple of guys off the bench played really well. I thought Nick Timoney on was incredibly physical. But, once we got into some of our game in the second half, once we got a bit of ball, I thought we went pretty well, going forward. We could have scored that third try which got disallowed and we kind of would have been back in the game but we left ourselves too much to do by then."

Looking at where he felt the match was lost against Les Bleus, McCloskey did not hesitate in recognising just how impressive France were last Thursday. Fabien Galthie's men are tipped to retain their Six Nations title, as the considerable co-favourites alongside an England team that have now won 12 Tests in a row.

"They just took every chance they had in the first half and they played some amazing rugby." McCloskey added. "We needed to get back on top of them physically, win some collisions and get a couple of turnovers but I don't think they gave away a penalty in the first half. They were pretty good over the ruck. They kicked in the right positions. It just battered us really."

"We weren't playing our game. They were probably battering us physically. We needed to win some collisions and get back in the game, that way."

Looking ahead to this weekend, and Ireland eye up a return to winning form as they host Italy at the Aviva Stadium. Gonzalo Quesada's men head to Dublin riding a tidal wave of momentum, having started off their Six Nations campaign with a hard-fought 18-15 win over Scotland in the torrential Roman rain. McClosey shared how it will be a tough week of preparations, in order to get Ireland back fit and firing to secure the win this Saturday.

"You've got to get turned around pretty quickly. So we just take a couple days off now, back in on Sunday. We'll review that pretty hard I'm sure and you have to move on quickly. This thing goes on pretty quickly now. So we'll move on to Italy next week."

1. Ulster stalwart with 200+ appearances: McCloskey made his Ulster debut in 2014 and is now part of the province’s 200-appearance club, a mark of remarkable longevity.