Jack McGrath: Ulster coach Dan McFarland says prop is ‘my kind of player’

“Jack McGrath’s my kind of player. I like those nasty fellas,” smiles Ulster coach Dan McFarland.

As a few of us have found out, when we’ve been slightly loose (guilty!) or possibly even inaccurate with our language in reporting on him and his players, McFarland doesn’t suffer fools.

Though invariably a very civil interviewee, Jack McGrath is wont to make similarly forceful and direct interjections when the occasion warrants it in a rugby context and McFarland loves having him about the place in Ulster.

“Off the pitch Jack says it how it is,” said the Ulster coach this week.

“He doesn’t care what people think of him and if it needs saying, he’ll say it. There aren’t many people like that.

“You can’t underestimate the power of that when it is backed up by his credibility and the legacy he has in rugby.

“I knew Jack before he came here and I had a lot of time for Jack as a person.

“Jack is a competitor. I’m not even going to talk about what be brings on the field because we all know what he brings there, his scrummaging, his size, his muscularity, his physicality.”