Gallic gatherings remind Mack Hansen how far he's come on his road less likely

Having arrived for the “craic”, the winger has made himself a part of the furniture. Twelve tries in 27 caps only touch the surface of his contribution.

GAME READY: Mack Hansen at the IRFU High Performance Centre, Sport Ireland Campus, Blanchardstown, Dublin. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Scoot through the bare highlights of Ireland’s last home tie against France, when Andy Farrell’s world number one-ranked side took out the reigning Grand Slam champions in a game for the ages, and Mack Hansen doesn’t emerge from it looking all that great.

This was the 2023 Six Nations meeting where Antoine Dupont, all 5’ 8” of him, managed to manhandle the Connacht wing away from a try line that was just inches away when Hansen took possession of a loose ball. What would he do differently again?

“Score the try,” he deadpanned on Tuesday. “Yeah.” 

If that snapshot spoke for the freakish athletic abilities of the French No.9 then there was another split-second moment that captured the dangers inherent for any opponent when facing the visitors to Dublin this weekend.

Hansen did little or nothing wrong when taking the ball on the halfway line from a Romain Ntamack kick. He dummied an inside pass, chipped and chased – and then joined a phalanx of flailing defenders seconds later as Damian Penaud ran in a counter for the ages.

“I don't know if a lot of teams [would] score the way they did, for sure, but that's the way they play. That's the way this French team has been attacking for years now, so it's a testament to them and just how dangerous they are.” 

Hansen actually played pretty well that day. And it followed up his breakthrough moment a year earlier in Paris when, after a lightning French opening, he raced onto a dropping restart and bolted over for a try that settled Irish nerves in a city where games can sour so quickly.

Only his second cap, the one thought going through the rookie’s head when Johnny Sexton kicked that ball into the air was to chase it like his life depended on it so Andy Farrell couldn’t scream at him after. What happened next was a bonus.

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It’s worth remembering just how new he was to us at the time.

Hansen was only seven months landed in Connacht from Australia. He had just the nine games under his belt with Connacht, by which time six tries had been scored and a host of heads turned. Farrell’s most obviously.

He knew that an Irish call-up was technically possible thanks to his Cork-born mum but the plan on arrival from the Brumbies was do what he could out west and maybe follow it up with a stint in France or Japan or wherever. It wasn’t a lack of ambition, just a see-how-it-goes shot to nothing.

"I remember thinking coming to Galway that I was going to be living in a hut somewhere, that my lights were going to be candles and stuff like that," he said. "Like I had no clue what I was coming into, to be honest with you!” 

Having arrived for the “craic”, he has made himself a part of the furniture. Twelve tries in 27 caps only touch the surface of his contribution. What speaks louder for his impact is how Farrell and Simon Easterby have recalled him instantly each time after injury.

That hasn’t passed him by.

That faith was emphasised again with news this week that he has signed a central IRFU contract to take him through to the next World Cup in Australia. While there was interest from abroad, Hansen said he would be “mad” not to have extended his commitment here. Keep impressing in the coming months and he might make it back to Oz even sooner. With Farrell’s Lions.

“It would be class. I can actually remember the last time the Lions were there [in 2013]. I was at the Brumbies game when the Brumbies beat them. To get the opportunity to be there would be incredible but I’ve just got to play well to make it on.” 

Aled Walters, Ireland’s new head of athletic development, was asked last month which players impressed him for a purely athletic standpoint. His first point of reference was Hansen and the ability to maintain speed while changing direction.

The Welshman added an observation about his work off the ball. Hansen himself played down the compliment with an 'aw shucks' modesty but admitted that his history of playing different positions across the back line have fed into this.

He recalled his days with the Brumbies 2nds, when they would be tasked with aping the free-flowing styles of the Crusaders and the Chiefs in training ahead of games against the Kiwi franchises and how much of a blast that was.

It’s no wonder, then, that he feels an affinity with a French team that plays as if the numbers on their backs are a guide rather than a straitjacket, but he feels that same freedom of movement is inherent in what is a more structured Irish team too.

“There's just so much freedom to express yourself on the field, and that comes from the top down, coaches always saying they want us to be ourselves.

“That gives you a good bit of confidence going into the game knowing that if you do mess up, it's not the end of the world, especially if you're actually trying something new. It's never frowned upon in this environment, so it's good.”