Dan McFarland key to new future for Ulster rugby

Ulster Rugby got the head coach they wanted in Dan McFarland yesterday and the province is now hopeful the former Connacht man will take the reins much sooner than the mid-January date the Scottish Rugby Union are holding him to.

After a troubled season which saw Les Kiss sacked as director of rugby on January 31 following the failure to qualify for the Champions Cup knockout rounds and then Jono Gibbes’ decision to walk away as head coach at the end of this campaign to return home to New Zealand, Ulster can at last celebrate the promise of much-needed stability in their management structure with the appointment of Englishman McFarland, 46, as head coach for next season on a three-year contract which will run until 2021.

Operations director Bryn Cunningham had said Ulster had secured their number one candidate but McFarland’s contract as Scottish national team forwards coach has a nine-month notice period which will tie him to Gregor Townsend’s management team until the middle of January 2019.