Ulster's Jonny Petrie confirms backing for post-McFarland coaching team

McFarland’s six-year tenure came to a premature end last week after three consecutive defeats and a run of just three wins from nine outings. Ulster sit eighth in the URC table and exited the Champions Cup over the pool stages as a last kick of the game against the Ospreys signalled the end for McFarland.

Ireland U20s coach Richie Murphy has been installed as interim coach until the end of the season.

“We're comfortable with where we're at just now with the coaching ticket, it's an opportunity to refresh it with Richie coming in there and the coaching group will do a really good job through to the end of the season,” said Petrie. “I'm excited, the club's excited, the players are excited about Richie coming in...he has a great track record with the under 20s of getting the best out of a young group of players and that's certainly something we want to see at Ulster and continue to compete at the top of European competition.

“We know we have the squad here and we're putting in performances, albeit inconsistently, that prove we're able to do that. We're focusing on the Dragons this weekend and then going into a trip to South Africa and Montpellier in the Challenge Cup and putting in some good performances and getting good results.”

While McFarland has been the only departure, Petrie feels the players also have to bear the responsibility for Ulster’s recent poor form.

“Everyone at the club has to be accountable for the success of the organisation on and off the field,” he said. “The players are very much part of that, whatever coach is there. There's a standard that we should expect on the field in terms of execution and ability to do the job. The players know that that's expected of them, I think we'll see that over the next few weeks.”

Petrie believes if Ulster went to finish in the URC top eight and make the Champions Cup the time was right to get rid of McFarland.

He highlighted his “huge amount of respect for Dan on a personal and professional level” but that “I think you recognise that it's perhaps the right time to make a change and you do what is best for the club”.

He said: “I've a huge amount of respect for Dan on a personal and professional level, you have a close working relationship with someone who you've worked day-to-day with for five years.

“These things are never easy. I've a lot of respect for what Dan has done here over the course of his time.

“I think you recognise that it's perhaps the right time to make a change and you do what is best for the club.

“It is what it is, it's part of the job.

“We ultimately got to the point with it where we felt we needed to change the head coach over the course of the past couple weeks.

“During that period, we've seen a huge amount of progress in where we've got to in being at the top end of the URC and consistently in European competition over that period, albeit it's been frustrating where we haven't taken that final step into silverware.

“Just this year we'd seen some consistencies creep in, we had some great stuff against Racing and Leinster on New Year's Day.

"But there's been inconsistency in there and it ultimately got to the point where we, as a club, thought it was the right thing to do to make a change.

“That's just the nature of the business sometimes, as unfortunate as it is, but now we're looking forward to Saturday in the first place and the rest of the season where we know we need to see an improvement in performance and more consistency through to the end of the season.”