Former Munster centre James Downey has questioned Ulster’s decision to hire head coach Dan McFarland for next season given that the Scotland assistant may not be at the province until January 2019.
McFarland signed a three-year contract with Ulster last month, however, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend told the BBC last week that his assistant will serve a nine-month notice period with Scottish Rugby before leaving for Belfast.
If Ulster can not strike a deal with Scottish Rugby to bring McFarland to the club before the end of that nine-month notice period it means that he would not take over at the province until January 21st 2019.
Downey said that the uncertainty around McFarland’s availability was not good enough and that he won’t be able to implement his strategy or gameplan at the club until next year unless Ulster can convince Scottish Rugby to waive his notice period.
“Dan McFarland is coming in, good coach, but he’s not coming in until January,” said Downey on the latest episode of The Hard Yards.
“It’s all that bollocks again. Why can’t they do something correct?
“Here’s a coach – have him in for next year. It’s going to be another year now of – even if they do get through [their Champions Cup play-off with the Ospreys] – they still have all this off-field stuff going on.
“There coach isn’t in place for pre-season. He’s not implementing his strategy or his gameplan. It’s going to be ‘oh wait until Christmas’. It’s not good enough.”
[Eoin O’Malley and James Downey discuss the Ulster situation from the 40:00 mark on the latest episode of The Hard Yards].
Former Leinster centre Eoin O’Malley added that Ulster operated in a more militaristic manner under David Humphreys and that they needed a coach that would be able to come in and change the culture of the club.
“I think there’s a huge amount of talent next year but I think they need someone to come in and change the mentality, the culture and the mindset,” said O’Malley.
“Obviously David Humphreys had a big impact when he was there but it was probably more of a military-type regime when he was there.
“That can only last so long before people go ‘where else?'”
