WEDNESDAY’S PREVIEW OF the 2024 Super Rugby season on Rugby Weekly Extra took a brief detour closer to home in light of the Irish Independent’s overnight report that head coach Dan McFarland is set to leave Ulster with immediate effect.
The Englishman has coached Ulster for the past six years but after a poor recent run of form, Sunday’s URC defeat at Ospreys may well have proved “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, according to former Ireland performance coach Eoin Toolan.
The Rugby Weekly Extra analyst joined host Gavan Casey to discuss McFarland’s departure and said that a coaching change at this stage of a season — a rarity not only in Irish rugby, but in the sport generally — suggested that McFarland’s position at the northern province had become “untenable”.
Toolan, who previously coached with Super Rugby’s Melbourne Rebels and Japan’s Kintetsu Liners, also pointed towards the respective departures of Dwayne Peel and Jared Payne as a turning point for the worse during McFarland’s tenure.
“There was an alarming nature to the lack of progression in the squad over the last 18 months,” Toolan said. “We’d previously thought they were on an upward trajectory and that seems to have stalled.
“Their win ratio over the last couple of seasons would still have been pretty high but such are the demands and expectations of what is a pretty talented squad, the pressure has come on it appears. And to leave in the middle of a season, things must be at a pretty low ebb.
“I will go back and say I think the losses of Dwayne Peel and Jared Payne, particularly, were really critical and they coincide with the stall in progression in the team.
“It’s really important who you surround yourself with. The head coach is obviously doing a lot of the background, but the guys that are in front of the playing group day to day, presenting to them: they’ve got a really critical role but on the field and off the field.”
Toolan added that the process behind the appointment of McFarland’s successor would be “critically important”.
The former Ireland coach suggested that Ulster’s squad profile demands a “more dynamic brand” of attacking rugby than what McFarland’s side has produced over the last 18 months, and said that he hoped an Irish coach would be in the frame to take the reins at Ravenhill.
“We’ve talked about it on the pod, about a possible lack of identity in terms of what they stand for as a side,” said Toolan.
“Like, obviously, they’ve leveraged their maul, they’ve recruited South African-profile types of players at a large expense who potentially haven’t quite paid off for them. And when you look at how talented the backline is, you would suspect they need to embrace a little bit more of a dynamic brand of rugby.
“It all needs to marry up: your game model, the profile of your squad, where you want to invest, and the profile of coach that you want to bring in to be able to deliver on that formula.
“It’s a really important appointment and you would hope that there is going to be some homegrown coaches at least considered for the role.”
Elsewhere on Wednesday’s pod, Toolan and host Gavan Casey also conducted a thorough preview of the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific campaign, with assessments of each team’s chances, players to watch, and season predictions.
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Why hasn’t anyone mentioned Declam Kidney yet? The guy still has it and turned London Irish into a very competitive team before they went financially down the drain.
@Sam Bingham: *Declan
@Sam Bingham: DK was director of rugby Les Kiss was head coach, LK has already been in the Ulster hotseat.
@Sam Bingham: what names are being bandied about anyway ?
@Kingshu: Les Kiss is back in Australia, Head Coach of Queensland Reds. Zero chance he’s going back to what’s left of Ulster, a pale shadow of the squad he had at the time talent wise…
There is a bang of Chelsea off of Ulster. “Rumours of discontent in the camp”. They’re not rumours, players are speaking off the record to members of the media. I think DMcF needed an experienced coach alongside him to freshen the message to players. Look at the assistants throughout his time and they were mostly young coaches learning their trade.
It was more and more apparent that the message from DMcF gone stale but it shouldn’t be acceptable for players to tune out from management.
Whoever comes in next, for the club it needs to be someone who is unequivocally in charge and has the authority to release players who are hanging round the squad
Hope Murphy goes well. If he does you’d expect he’d get it full time and possible tempt a few of the younger talents at Leinster they’d be better off moving up there. They have plenty of decent players and are really not far off already
Maybe it’s better than saying you’re leaving and hanging around like JVG, we’ll see, Ulster are always well positioned, a little fire could be all they need
Clearly a players revolution, glad they had enough of his muck rugby
He did talk a great game-in a good way-like he’d an articulate rugby brain- but he couldn’t seem to implement his ideas any more. Shame. 6 years, was it? , a good innings really.
Ulster are a basket case, they won’t get a decent coach with that squad. Couple of decent players, but too many of the senior players are journeymen. Must be the Stadium rebuild that’s handcuffed their finances, because if you look at the last four years Kitschoff is the only serious signing (a 32 year old prop with a fair amount of miles in the clock). The quality isn’t there to bring the Academy lads (the bulk of squad changes each of last four seasons) up to required level. You’ve got a journeyman lock who’s captained them well over 50 times and is approaching 200 caps. No other province would have him, let alone make him a double centurion..
@Sea Point: OMG, that’s some unbelievable and unfair nonsense.
@Bob Cummings: really, point me out the international class players in Ulster’s squad, I’ve got five seconds. Have a look at the transfer dealings of the last four years, and the gap between the quality lost and what they’ve brought in. It is enormous, absolutely enormous. There isn’t a body of quality players there to bring on the talent coming from School’s and Academy. And no coach is going to turn likes of O’Connor into an international standard player. He’s ruck to maul to scrum, and that’s it. Meanwhile, look at the difference between your 24y/o lock prospect Cormac Izuchukwu and Connacht’s 24y/o Niall Murray. One has 18 caps (468 mins), the other 68 caps (3647 mins). There’s your problem, journeymen blocking pathways for talent…
@Sea Point: Fair play to you, underlying your complete ignorance of Ulster Rugby and the talent available, bravo.
They need a coach who will get them back to their rightful place as a very average to fair enough URC team. That’s all folks. Hume needs to leave, like Henshaw leaving Connacht. They have their Bundee Aki with Big Stu and that’s enough for them.
@Michael KILLIAN: Alright Bugs Bunny,good man yourself..
@Michael KILLIAN: clown
Having had time to reflect on Dan’s departure. For me the dysfunctionality in Ulster in my view started with the Brian McLoughlin sacking debacle after the 2012 appearance in the Heineken final. The CEO at the time was also not up to it and then Humphreys left etc etc. What club would not buckle under the pressure of that Jackson trial – but what club has ever faced such a thing? O’Driscoll was correct – a basket case! Ulster has lost its way over the past decade – poor leadership on and off the pitch with a detachment from the ordinary supporter. Look at the annual change of kit colour – moving further away from our traditional colours – this season it’s blue – club shop looks like something out of the RDS. Not to mention a plastic pitch which says it all – on the surface looks good but underneath nothing but tarmac and sand!! Ulster need to rediscover the link to their heritage as a rugby team and community. Getting back that identity is a massive task and not just down to the coach.