“I wasn’t anywhere near the stature of him. I’m not sure Cockers would remember playing against me”
● Ulster coach locked horns with Cockerill as a player and will relish their head to head this weekend
Ulster coach Dan Mcfarland on renewing battle with his old hero RICHARD COCKERILL when his side take on Edinburgh in the Guinness Pro14 semi-final at BT Murrayfield on Saturday.
Dan Mcfarland regards Richard Cockerill among one of his rugby heroes and the ex-prop relishes memories of frontrow battles with the former Leicester and England hooker in the late 1990s.
McFarland was at Richmond, then in the English top flight, and had a few games against the great Tigers team of that era and, while many erstwhile opponents have described facing Cockerill on the pitch as a pretty uncomfortable experience to put it mildly, the Ulster coach smiles and says: “I really enjoyed it.
“I would only have been a young fella then, he’s a lot older than me,” he added. At 48 he is in fact just a year younger than his counterpart in Saturday evening’s Guinness Pro14 semi-final between their two teams at BT Murrayfield.
“I wouldn’t have been anywhere near the stature of him and his cohorts,” Mcfarland continued. “To the point I’m not sure Co ckers would remember playing against me.
“I do remember playing against them, at Welford Road on a number of occasions and at Richmond at the Athletic Ground there. I think my favourite game against them was the quarter-final of the Tetley Bitter Cup when we beat them at Reading [in February 1999, before losing to Newcastle Falcons in the semi-finals, who in turn lost to Wasps in the final].
“I really enjoyed playing in that game. Against what basically would have been heroes of mine as I was watching rugby. When I say it wasn’t horrible I’m not saying it wasn’t tough. By God it was tough. But it was a fantastic experience.”
Mcfarland left south-west London not long after that match as Richmond, and cotenants of the Athletic Ground London Scottish faced financial difficulties and a plunge back into amateurism, and left for France where he played for Stade Francais.
He eventually ended up in the west of Ireland playing for Con nachtw here he transitioned from playing to coaching, earning recognition for his work with Ireland under20s, Emerging Ireland and the international‘ A’ team Irish Wolfhounds before be coming head coach at Connacht. He spent three years in Scotland, replacing Shade Munro as Glasgow Warriors forwards coach before following Gregor Townsend to the national setup. Ulster came calling a year later.
McFarland isn’ t the only Scottish link at the Irish province as managing director Jonny Petrie crossed the Irish Sea to become Ulster chief executive, joined by Edinburgh assistant coach Roddy Grant.
The English man doesn’ t believe it brings any extra insight into Saturday’s match.
“As much as we as coaches would like to think we’re the genius es behind the manufacturing of performance sin semi-finals it’s not the case,” he said. “You don’t really need to have the inside information to know what Edinburgh are about and what they’ve got on the pitch. The inside information we have maybe helps a little bit but not really.”
For his par t, Cockerill said: “Roddy was my assistant and forwards coach for two years.
And Dan was S cotland for - wards coach who sat in at our meetings and watched many of our training sessions so he knows what is coming.
“It do esn’t take a genius to work out what is coming from a team I coach. They are good guys, they have players and are a good club. There is a lot to like about Ulster rugby. They have nicked plent y of intellect from Edinburgh, nicked the MD, the for wards coach, the head of communications! What else do they want to take from us? Dan is a good English coach like myself so let’s get into it.”
M c Fa r l a n d wa s h a p p y t o keep the mutual appreciation society going. “Oh look, excellent,” he said when asked to a s s e s s t h e s t r i d e s ma d e b y Edinburgh under Co ckerill. “You could legiti mately say they and Leinster have been the standout teams in our comp etition this year.” Changed d a y s f r o m w h e n M c F a r - land was in S cotland before C o c k e r i l l g o t a g r i p o f t h e underperforming capital side.
“I n e ve r r e a l l y t h o u g h t o f Edinburgh as a basket case,” he said. “Before Cockers came in there was a bit of discov - ering their own identit y and what they wanted to b e. As with everything that’s always a journey. There were go o d steps made and then Cockers came in and gave them a very definitive identity.”
O n e d i s a p p o i n t m e n t o f Cockerill’s tenure has been the r e c o r d i n k n o c ko u t g a mes . Four defeats, including three at home, in the Challenge Cup t o C a r d i f f a n d L a Ro c h e l l e , away to Munster in the Pro14 quar ter-finals and the same side at home in the Heineken Champions Cup last eight.
“It’s time for us to step up,” said the Edinburgh coach.
“I wouldn’t have been anywhere near the stature of him and his cohorts. To the point I’m not sure Cockers would remember playing against me”
DAN MCFARLAND