Dan McFarland (born 10 April 1972) is an English

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

coach and former player. He was head coach of

Ulster Rugby Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the Irish regional pool of the United Rugby Championship and in the European Rugby Champions Cup, each of which they have won ...

from 2018 to 2024. He played loosehead prop for

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

Stade Français Stade Français Paris (known commonly as Stade Français, ) is a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and is one of the most successful French ...

and

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

, retiring in 2006. He was forwards coach, then assistant coach for Connacht from 2007 to 2015, head coach of Emerging Ireland in 2014 and

Ireland Wolfhounds The Ireland Wolfhounds (also known as Ireland A and Ireland B) are the second national rugby union team of Ireland, behind the Ireland national team. History The Wolfounds previously competed in the Churchill Cup together with the England Sax ...

in 2015, assistant coach of

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

from 2015 to 2017, and assistant coach of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

from 2017 to 2018.

Family and early life

McFarland's grandfather, Danny, came from

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, and played rugby for Queen's University before becoming an engineer, working on coal-fired and nuclear power stations in England. His father, Paddy, was born in

Rugby, Warwickshire Rugby is a market town in eastern Warwickshire, England, close to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, its population was 78,117, making it the List of Warwickshire towns by population, secon ...

, and won a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

for rugby at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

before playing for Headlingley and

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...

.Gerry Thornley
"Learning a key factor in Dan McFarland’s Ulster growth plan"
''The Irish Times'', 4 May 2019 McFarland attended

Ampleforth College Ampleforth College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding and day school in the English Public school (United Kingdom), public school tradition. It opened in 1803 as a boys' school. It is near the villa ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, where he started playing rugby, and studied classics at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

."My job in Connacht - Dan McFarland Assistant Coach"
''Irish Independent'', 11 December 2004

Playing career

McFarland started his senior rugby career at Hull Ionians RUFC, preferring to play in the senior 2nd XV whilst still of age to play for the Colts. At the end of the amateur era, he played loosehead prop for Morley R.F.C. while training to be a teacher. In 1996, he was approached by John Kingston to sign for

, one of the first English clubs to embrace professionalism. He spent a season with

in 1999-2000, and was part of the team that won the French Championship, before joining

, where he played for six seasons. He became only the second player, after

Eric Elwood Eric Elwood is a former Irish rugby union player from Galway. He played as a fly-half. He played for Ireland internationally, and provincially for Connacht. He was on the Coláiste Iognáid team that won the Connacht Schools Rugby Senior Cup ...

, to make 100 appearances for the provinceRob Murphy
"Major blow as McFarland to leave Connacht in Summer"
''Connacht Tribune'', 13 March 2015 in 2005, and retired from playing in 2006.

Coaching career

In his final year as a player, he coached the Connacht under-21 team alongside Nigel Carolan. After retiring, he coached

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

club Monivea to the Connacht Junior League title in 2006-07, and assisted

in coaching

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

to the

Six Nations Under 20s Championship The Six Nations Under 20s Championship is an international rugby union tournament. It is the under-20s equivalent of the Six Nations Championship. Originally the tournament was in an under-21 format but changed to under-20s in 2008. England ...

. In 2007 he was appointed

's forwards coach. When Elwood became head coach in 2010, he appointed McFarland as his assistant. He lost out on the head coach's job in 2013 to

Pat Lam Patrick Richard Lam (born 29 September 1968) is a rugby union coach and former player. He is currently Director of Rugby at Bristol Bears in England's Premiership Rugby. Born in New Zealand, he represented New Zealand in schools and under-21 ...

, but stayed on as Lam's assistant. While coaching at Connacht, he was appointed head coach of the Emerging Ireland team for the 2014 IRB Nations Cup, assisted by Neil Doak, and in 2015 he was head coach of the

. In 2015 he took over from

Shade Munro Donald Shade Munro (born 19 November 1966, Paisley, Scotland) is a Scottish rugby union player, who played at lock/second row. Rugby union career Amateur career In Scotland he played for Eastwood High School (Newton Mearns) and subsequently ...

as assistant coach at

, shortly after the club won the Pro12 for the first time. In May 2017 he was appointed assistant coach of the

national team under Gregor Townsend. After the resignation of Jono Gibbes as

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

's head coach at the end of the 2017–18 season, McFarland was announced as his replacement on 30 April 2018. Initially he was to serve his notice with Scotland and join Ulster in January 2019, with Simon Easterby to act as interim head coach until then. But in August, an agreement was reached with Scotland for McFarland to join Ulster before the new season. In his first season, Ulster made the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

semi-final and the European Rugby Champions Cup quarter final. They made the Pro14 final and the Champion's Cup quarter final in 2019–20. In 2020–21 they finished second in Conference B of the Pro14, and made the semi-final of the

European Rugby Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

. In 2021–22 they made the semi-finals of the

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

and the round of 16 in the Champions Cup, and McFarland signed a new contract at the end of the season. He stepped down in February 2024 after a run of poor performances.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McFarland, Dan Living people 1972 births Alumni of Newcastle University Connacht Rugby players Connacht Rugby non-playing staff English people of Northern Ireland descent English rugby union coaches English rugby union players Glasgow Warriors coaches People educated at Ampleforth College Richmond F.C. players Rugby union players from Oxfordshire Scotland national rugby union team coaches Ulster Rugby non-playing staff