In the depths of Ulster’s depressing run of form in mid-season, it was conceivable they would need a parachute to make a soft landing in a field, far from civilisation.jean valjean wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 5:49 pm https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/ ... 40097.html
Behind a paywall. Does anyone have a copy of full story?
It started in traumatic circumstances against Leinster and ran through a horror show in Sale, La Rochelle in Dublin and then Benetton and La Rochelle again before the corner was turned in the New Year. En route the tone and demeanour of their head coach was of a man who had checked out, packed his bags, and was just waiting for transport to the airport.
After the defeat by La Rochelle in Lansdowne Road, Dan McFarland followed the script and whinged about having to come to Dublin when Ravenhill seemingly had been playable in the nick of time. The problem was business is planned in advance, for all sorts of reasons, at which point Ulster were caught with their pants down. But he didn’t say that.
Yet here we are on the run-in to the URC, with not a frozen pitch in sight, and Ulster have twin peaks ahead: win at home to Edinburgh on Friday night and then enjoy the benefits of a home semi-final.
If they get the first bit right against a club with nothing to play for, Ulster could finish the regulation phase of the league with 69 points. That would be 10 more than last season when they got over the line in third place, beating Munster in the quarters and then losing narrowly to the Stormers in Cape Town. No disgrace in that. Indeed, you could argue that Ulster were a lot better a long way from home last season than Leinster were in losing at the RDS to the Bulls.
This time around their injury issues at prop forward, with Tom O’Toole off his feet for at least a month and Marty Moore’s season long since over, make it a steep challenge just when you need your best men ready and able.
From these circumstances, if McFarland’s men are able to deliver something special then it will be one of the great comebacks in the pro era in this country, for evidently they are not all McFarland's men.
The playing group seem united and focused yet a handful of them are scathing about their head coach. One says the recovery from the slump in form was "despite Dan, not because of him." They also bemoan the loss of assistant coach Jared Payne last season.
Payne is currently in Clermont, a club in transition. It’s understood he may be moving on at the end of this season, possibly to the Scarlets, or back to New Zealand, but seemingly not to Ulster.
McFarland has soldiered on without him, but it’s hard to see where the head coach is getting any job satisfaction. His relationship with the players needed some mending after he threw them under the bus in the mid-season slump. For some, that healing process never quite hit the spot.
To compound things his captain, Iain Henderson, is plagued by injury.
It was interesting, for example, that when we interviewed Henderson in Ireland camp two months ago he gushed steadily about Andy Farrell and the positive culture locked in with the national team.
“Yeah, we’ve created an environment here where, irrespective of whether you’re starting or not it feels like you’re contributing to the weekend’s win,” Henderson said. “The coaches are good at highlighting that and they’re good at pointing out when players are training well during the week or pointing out that this is making you better.”
But he never referenced anything similar in his day job. In a transcript that ran to nearly 3000 words, Henderson didn’t mention McFarland once. True, most of the chat was about Ireland, but there were a couple of questions in there around Ulster too, who by that stage were looking long range at a trip to Dublin to face Leinster in Europe’s last 16. Nothing about Dan The Man. In contrast, he name-checked Farrell 17 times, all of them in glowing terms.
It’s hard to infer happiness from a camp where the captain and head coach don’t appear to be on the same page, and where others feel badly treated over game time. It doesn’t mean the squad can’t function but in an era where most people appreciate the value of togetherness and keeping everyone on board, it’s not exactly premium fuel going in the tank.
Professional sport makes that hard, simply because of competition for places. So people will have the hump about not getting enough pitch time, but you’ll need them at some point so it makes sense to keep them onside and facing the right direction. That doesn’t seem to be a thing in Ulster.
“Dan has a very clear idea of where he wants to go as a person and a coach and, like a lot of guys in his position – DoRs or whatever – he’s driven to deliver on that,” says a former Ulster servant who didn’t want to be named. “But sometimes it comes without the human approach to engage with players or staff. He struggles with empathy. To be honest, I think not many in that position have the capability to marry that. But if you want to get results you have to understand the people you’re working with. Ultimately, I think it’s that connection that gets you over the line.”
It’s unlikely to be the winning or losing of the contest on Friday night, but the further they go in the competition the more important it becomes. Moreover, if it doesn’t change then neither will Ulster.
You wonder how things would have panned out had the speculation linking McFarland with Leicester Tigers turned into an actual move, but as it stands he is contracted in Ravenhill until 2025. It’s a long road that has no turn.
