CONNACHT HEAD COACH Andy Friend has said that Mack Hansen – included in the Six Nations squad after spending a week in Irish camp in the autumn – is fit and raring to go after recovering from a calf injury.
It remains to be seen if he will be risked in Connacht’s final pool game against Stade Francais in the Champions Cup on Sunday, or held in reserve for Irish duty, having arrived from Australia under the radar just last summer.
He has been in sensational form for Connacht, running in six tries in eight league games, but has yet to make his European debut.
“Yes, he is fit and available,” said Friend about the winger he brought in from his native Australia. And Friend knows that the 4G pitch at Stade Jean Bouin in Paris is set up perfectly for the likes of Hansen and the style of running rugby Connacht have been playing this season.
“It is, but again I have been down that road before where everything is set and it looks good and it’s all going to happen for you, but if you don’t turn up and perform it doesn’t mean a pinch.
“So for us we know we are on a 4G pitch, we know it is going to be a fast track but we are up against a very proud Stade Francais team. They won’t be wanting us to win that game of rugby, so we will have to work pretty hard.”
Connacht, despite losing both games to Leicester Tigers, are all but in the knockout stages for the first time with three bonus points picked up against the Premiership leaders making all the difference.
Barring a remarkable bonus-point win by Castres away to English champions Harlequins on Friday night, Friend’s men are through. Even if Castres pulled off that unthinkable result at The Stoop, Connacht would need just a losing bonus point to advance.
Friend knows that they probably need to raise the bar now and start aiming for a quarter-final spot and beyond, but a quarter of a century of coaching all over the world has taught him to be cautious.
“Once you get to knockout stages the confidence builds and you want to go to the next stage. The first part of that is getting into the knockout stages, so that’s our goal at the moment.
“Hopefully we produce a performance on Sunday that allows us to do that and then we can have a chat about where we go from there,” he added.
He will be without tighthead prop Jack Aungier on Sunday after he had to come off in the heartbreaking 29-28 loss to Tigers at the weekend, but on a brighter note loosehead prop Denis Buckley – who suffered a cruciate injury less than a minute into his 200th appearance for Connacht last May – is set to return soon.
“Yeah, he is getting closer,” added Friend. “He keeps telling me he’s raring to go but he did about six months ago. But he’s very close at the minute, probably within the next two weeks.”
Meanwhile, Friend said that Irish centre Bundee Aki, who received a citing warning from the EPCR yesterday after angrily confronting French referee Mathieu Raynal following a controversial end to their game against Leicester, would learn from his mistake.
“I think Bundee knew that he had let his emotions get the better of him on Saturday. Again, that’s how much it means to these blokes. I know Bundee was upset with himself with that, so I think a warning is fair to say be careful, because we’re all role models.
“It’s one of the great things of the game of rugby; it’s played in the right spirit. It’s competitive, it’s fierce, but at the same time it’s respectful and if you step across that line of a lack of respect you need to be slapped on the knuckles. He’ll wear that one.”
Aki, perhaps having viewed the footage that showed the referee was correct to allow the match-winning try in the final play from replacement Leicester winger Hosea Saumaki, took to social media shortly after the game finished to apologise for his outburst.
“I certainly didn’t chase him on that one, he put it out himself,” added Friend. “He knew that he had done wrong. He’s been around a lot of matches where we lose at the tail end of it, and I respect that he has that energy and passion, he just needs to be better controlled, which he knows himself.”
