McFarland was ‘gutted’ when Connacht chose Lam

Ulster head coach Dan McFarland has revealed he was “gutted” when he lost out on the Connacht job to Pat Lam in 2013.

McFarland’s association with Connacht runs deep, having spent six years at the province as a player and a further nine as an assistant coach (from 2000 to 2015), but now believes the setback was the best thing that could have happened to him.

He went to Scotland to work under Gregor Townsend, first at Glasgow and then Scotland, before returning to these shores as a wiser, smarter, coach and it is Ulster – host to Connacht in Saturday’s PRO14 quarter-final – who are reaping the benefits.

“For a long time I thought that I’d like to be the Connacht head coach,” McFarland admitted.

“When I didn’t get it, I was gutted. I thought everyone in the world was wrong except me.

"It took me a month to realise that I was the person who was wrong and didn’t deserve the job. It was a bloody good job I didn’t get it as well because I wasn’t ready.

Pat came in and opened my eyes to the fact I had to move on. I could have stayed in Connacht forever. I loved the place and I still do. But in terms of growth, I had to move on.

“I had to go somewhere else to learn and I was lucky Gregor gave me the chance to broaden my horizons.”

Rory Best, who is retiring after the World Cup in the autumn, looks to be winning his fitness battle and could lead out the team at Kinspan Stadium for the last time on Saturday — but Jacob Stockdale will miss out.

Ireland’s try-scoring machine suffered a hamstring injury in the win over Edinburgh three weeks ago which secured Ulster a home play-off berth.

The news over the captain is much better. Best damaged ankle ligaments 16 minutes into Ulster’s Champions Cup quarter-final loss to Leinster a month ago and left the Aviva Stadium on crutches and a protective boot.

But he has made a speedy recovery.

“Rory is training at the moment so there’s positive progress at the moment,” confirmed McFarland.

“We’re not going to definitively decide anything on that yet but it’s looking reasonably positive.

“But Jacob’s not ready at the moment, so it’s unlikely he’ll be involved.”

McFarland insisted Sean Reidy’s concussion injury didn’t happen in the alleged headbutt incident with Fergus McFadden on Saturday.

The Leinster wing escaped punishment, but has since been cited and will face a hearing today.

“That wasn’t when he sustained the concussion, no.

“He got a bump on the head from Alan O’Connor’s knee in a ruck clear-out.”

Connacht are the only team to come to Kingspan Stadium this season and win.

They’ve also done the double over Ulster this season, including October’s historic first win in Belfast since 1960.

“We’ve moved on in the scrum since and we’re a much better unit now than we were then and from a personal point of view, I definitely want to beat them,” said McFarland.

Reminded of the warmth of his earlier reflections on his time at Connacht, he replied: “yeah... I don’t love them at the moment”.

“It was pretty painful last time here, and it was painful when we lost there too, but let’s not get away from it – we don’t have a right to win. They’re a team that’s beaten us twice this year fair and square.

“We haven’t been able to do the job and it’s a difficult task to beat them, as difficult a task as we’ve had all year. “They’re in rude health and playing well.

“They are confident, you can hear from what they say in the press that they’re confident of coming here and beating us.”