Dan's the man for Ulster: Who would argue with John Cooney

While there remains some uncertainty around when McFarland will actually arrive in the Province, Cooney is under no doubt that he is well placed to take the Province forwards.

Currently assistant coach to the Scottish national team, McFarland is scheduled to go to South America for the summer tour.

But the Scottish Rugby Union have also insisted that McFarland will have to serve his contract out - meaning he would not be due to arrive in Belfast until mid January 2019.

That is certainly something Ulster and the IRFU will not accept, and given the fresh start the Irish Province are looking for ahead of the new season they will need McFarland in situ for the start of the pre-season from July.

Englishman McFarland spent a decade at Connacht and Cooney would have first hand experience of his coaching methods.

“He did some quality work with Connacht and he is a quality coach,” said Cooney.

Outgoing head coach, Jono Gibbes departed for New Zealand this morning with his family.

While he is returning home and understood to be taking up a coaching position with Waikato, it remains to be seen if recent talks with Top14 French side La Rochelle will lead to a return to the Northern Hemisphere next season.

Cooney has had two spells under Gibbes, one when at Leinster and Joe Schmidt and the season just past.

“I think Dan is a little bit more relaxed than Jono, but to be honest when it was him and Joe in Leinster I never said a word.

“I was quite scared, Jono has relaxed a good bit and is a seriously good coach.

“But he does scare you and if you do things wrong you need that and he really ingrains those good habits and I hope everything goes well for him when he goes home.”

So does McFarland hold that ‘fear factor as well?

“He’s the exact same,” said Cooney. “I don’t think I said many words to him in Connacht, he must have presented well because it was Joe (Schmidt) that selected him (for Ulster).

“Dan did some seriously good work at Connacht and I’d say he was really disappointed to leave after we won (PRO12).

“He’s a quality coach and if you do something wrong he’ll go through you and that is what Ulster needs.”

One of Ulster’s weaknesses this season has been identified as their forward pack.

However, scrumhalf Cooney believes the criticism has not been merited.

“I think our pack in general in the last five or six games have been really good.

“There is a lot of quality in there and a lot of individuals getting more game time and we are going to strengthen next year with Jordi (Murphy) and Marty (Moore) coming in and a few others and it has become one of our strengths.

“With Dan specialising in forwards coaching he is going to go through boys and toughen them up a bit more so I think next year will be big.”

Meanwhile, Ireland are due to announce a preliminary squad for the Australian summer tour on Thursday and Cooney is keeping his fingers crossed he may get a call.

““I’m hopeful but I’ve been up and down and in a lot worse situations. I’m either off to Thailand next week or I’ll be on that tour.

“Whatever happens happens and reflecting and getting annoyed is not really going to do anything.”