Connacht line up friend-turned-foe in head coach hunt

Connacht could turn to a familiar face, Dan McFarland, as they step up their search to replace Pete Wilkins, who ended his eight-year association with the United Rugby Championship outfit last month.

Wilkins has already landed a new job as Benetton’s attack coach on a three-year deal after leaving the Galway-based outfit less than two years after helping them reach the United Rugby Championship semi-finals.

And Connacht might not be too far away from finding his replacement with the suggestions from well-placed sources that they are interested in speaking to McFarland about making a return to the West of Ireland.

Oxfordshire-born McFarland, 53, who was educated at Ampleforth College, was an ex-Richmond loosehead when he joined Connacht from Stade Français in 2000 until retiring six years later.

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He then worked as an assistant coach at the Sportsground until June 2015, after which he had spells with Glasgow Warriors and Scotland before moving to Ulster as head coach in 2018, a position he held until leaving six years later.

McFarland is now earning his living as a forwards coach under his former Scotstoun boss, Dave Rennie, at the Japan Rugby League One outfit Kobelco Kobe Steelers, and admitted to The Sunday Times that he loves living in Japan.

“Japan is a great country, I’m really enjoying it. I’ve never been here before, and it’s certainly very different, which is exactly what I’d hoped for. I’d have been pretty disappointed if I hadn’t come and thought, ‘whoa!’

“What I’m telling myself is not to look for things you love back at home. You can’t base your life around trying to find things that you’re comfortable with.

“That’s not to say that you’re not going to find things that you’re comfortable with, but you’ve got to try to embrace the new things, find the new things that you enjoy.

“There are plenty of them. I’d obviously eaten ramen before, but my ramen experience over here is at a totally different level.

“My sushi experience is at a totally different level, and the people are so polite, efficient and understanding of my ineptitude,” said McFarland, whose family home is in Glasgow and is where his wife and children are based.