Dan McFarland proud to see Sean Reffell thrive after injury nightmare
As Sean Reffell makes his first European outing for Ulster against Toulouse in Ravenhill on Saturday evening, he will emerge from the tunnel with words of praise from his head coach Dan McFarland ringing in his ears.
The 25-year-old arrived from Saracens in the summer of 2022 but thanks to a series of injuries, the latest of which kept him on the sidelines for 11 months, tonight will represent just his sixth run for the northern province.
In his first start, he set the Ulster record for tackles in a game, racking up 39 against Munster on New Year’s Day of 2023 to claim a title he also held at Saracens. And it was more of the same against Leinster last time out, making 20 tackles in the win at the RDS.
It’s that work-rate that has impressed McFarland who joked he never had quite the same engine in his own playing days.
“He’s been excellent,” said the head coach. “There are some players that when they get on the pitch, they don’t hold back. It’s everything.
“You’re almost having to drag them off the pitch at the end because they’re so exhausted. He’s one of those players and that’s why he gets through the stats that he does and makes the plays that he does. He’s all or nothing.
“I don’t know whether you saw the clip of Levani Botia (for La Rochelle against Pau in the Top 14) at the weekend making three tackles in a row... some players have that mentality.
“I never had it as a player but Sean Reffell does. That can make you very special.
“Turnovers, tackles, a couple of breaks in terrible conditions (at the RDS), it’s exactly what we needed.”
Perhaps Reffell’s willingness to roll up his sleeves and plough through unglamorous work should come as no surprise. He is after all a product of Saracens, the club that, despite plenty of cynical raised eyebrows, turned their ‘Wolfpack mentality’ into the driving force behind an era of unprecedented success under Ulsterman Mark McCall.
Named the club’s Young Player of the Year in 2020/21 when they regained their top-flight status after relegation for salary cap breaches, he had five seasons in Barnet in all.
“Yeah massive,” Reffell says of the influence of the club environment during those formative years. “Mark McCall and all the coaches there were really good, always giving feedback and making you think about the game a bit differently.
“(It’s) always picking up on small things that you usually wouldn’t think about.
“Saracens was a lot about work-rate and pushing yourself which I have taken away with me as well.
“I can’t give them enough credit for when I was coming up.”
When it comes to getting off the line time and time again to make a tackle, Reffell sees it all as part of the job for an openside flanker.
“For me, I think it is about not overthinking things too much,” he said. “I know my role within the team is to try and bring that work-rate as a backrower, especially as a seven.
“It is just setting out to see how you can make a difference in a game, whether that is the speed to get back onto the feet or getting off the line and make a tackle. For me it is just down to where your mentality is at before the game. Once you are in the game, it is not overthinking too many things and being in the right place.”
In the Ulster No.7 jersey for a third week in succession, there is a sense that Reffell’s Ulster career is belatedly beginning some 18 months after his arrival. While long-term occupants of the Ravenhill treatment room have been numerous through the period, Reffell was the only one stuck on the sidelines while adjusting to life in a new city and with new team-mates.
“Being out that long and at a new club, to bed into any environment you want to show what you can do,” says McFarland. “Really that’s on the pitch.
“Sean is a really good bloke and he gets on well with everybody but you know he wants to be on the pitch.
“That’s where he’s showing his mates what he really can do. We knew what he could do and we got glimpses of it but he’ll have been so frustrated not to be out there. He’s a head down, work-hard guy.
“There’s lots of things you can achieve when you’re injured and he’s gone about that diligently.
“He’s come back and I wasn’t afraid at all to throw him straight back in as soon as he was ready and he was magnificent in both games.”
While naturally keen to look forward rather than back, Reffell admits it was not an easy spell.
“I got injured last January, it was a cartilage problem in my ankle and the scans were a bit iffy so (they) really didn’t see it until later on,” he remembers. “So there were a few times when I tried to return to play and couldn’t quite make it through.
“I got surgery in August and the cartilage got sorted out. I’m back fit now but it was a pretty long 11 months.
“I’m definitely taking nothing for granted. When it has been taken away from you for a while, even if you are tired before a training session, even if you are pretty sore but you are still able to train, you appreciate that feeling
“I’m just happy to be back.”
If recent selection is anything to go by, Dan McFarland, for one, is certainly happy to have him again too.
