'He sees any mistake as a learning as opposed to a loss of face'

Saracens assistant Kevin Sorrell has explained why unheralded signing Theo McFarland has become such a success for the title-chasing Gallagher Premiership club. The forward recently capped the 23rd appearance of his maiden season in London with a two-try second-half blast versus Northampton. 

Standing at 6ft 6ins, the 115kg McFarland – who is 26 and has been capped at blindside by Samoa – initially made his mark playing basketball before switching to rugby where he was picked up by Saracens last summer on a long-term deal following a spell with the MLR Dallas Jackals. 

It was only last January when he started the first top-flight match of his career, but the starts have since come thick and fast as there have been eight more in the league and another four in the European Challenge Cup, exposure that has seen him quickly become a fan favourite at the StoneX Arena. 

Win Tickets and Flights to the final of Major League Rugby

Win Tickets and Flights to the final of Major League Rugby

Ahead of this Saturday’s trip to Gloucester in the final round of the regular Premiership season before their home semi-final versus Harlequins, Sorrell gave his verdict to RugbyPass on the exciting emergence of McFarland these past few months. 

“It’s brilliant and a lot of it is down to his hard work. He is unbelievably coachable. He is very diligent, he is very perceptive, you sort of tell him something and you see him actively trying to practice it so you can see where his improvements come from because he has a desire to get better and the lads have taken to him massively – so he has slotted in really well for us.”

Tell us more about those improvements. “I suppose I’d say with regards to attack around his timings, his connections to other individuals. Sometimes people can overrun stuff or get flat or are unaware of who they are taking their timing from but he has worked hard on that in terms of putting himself in good positions so he can be effective. 

“When you sit down with a player you are either trying to reinforce good habits or sort of address an action that you don’t need (as a team),” continued Sorrell, explaining what has made McFarland so coachable at Saracens.

“When someone is getting told that is not what we want they can be quite defensive towards that but he is not defensive, he is open to that information, he is open to improvement because he sees any sort of mistake as a learning opportunity as opposed to a loss of face on his own part and he is very open to improving.”  

With McFarland now a regular on the Saracens teamsheet, Sorrell has tipped his hat to recruitment boss Nick Kennedy. “A lot of credit has to go to Nick Kennedy because he is our recruitment guy and he did his due diligence on him and thought there was a nice project there for us. He was right.

“I wouldn’t say he [McFarland] shocked us all with his improvement but it has certainly been accelerated from where we thought we would get him to at this stage. It is really pleasing in terms of what he has done for the squad.”