MACK HANSEN’S CONTROVERSIAL post-match comments after Saturday’s game between Connacht and Leinster were examined by Bernard Jackman and Murray Kinsella on Monday’s edition of Rugby Weekly Extra, the podcast for subscribers to The 42.
“I feel that Mack Hanen was honestly sharing his frustrations. He’s probably trying to protect his team and explain why they get frustrated, and maybe that they’re inconsistent because they aren’t getting a fair crack at it,” Jackman said.
“I don’t agree with the way he did it, but I respect him also for being honest, and I’m fascinated to see how it’s dealt with. I don’t have an issue with him doing it, to be fair.
“Connacht either wanted it to happen or…why was he in the press conference, when he’s obviously emotionally upset?
“It won’t become clear on the record, but off the record we’ll find out what led to this. It seems to me that there is more to this than just that one game.”
Kinsella said: “He’s definitely speaking as a spokesperson for Connacht, because he said it’s getting to the point where it’s really starting to piss them off.”
“You could hear frustration in the interactions with the referee from very early in the game. Even Cian Prendergast saying [to the referee] that when the crowd roared, that you’re looking at that stuff – there’s a name for that, it’s home advantage, and that happens everywhere.
“That’s literally (the) home fans’ job. That’s why you want to be at home, so fans can get on the referees back. It’s obvious that the home team and the bigger team get the burden of the call and that’s tough for Connacht.
“Mack missed a full half season of his career from an illegal side entry and got badly injured. That’s part of his personal experience of the world. You want to appreciate that and not dismiss it.
“But it is a very unusual way to go about it and it’s so unfamiliar, for rugby in particular, for a player to be so pointed and suggest bias,” Kinsella said.
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Mack was definitely correct with what he was saying. Connacht never get the rub of the green.
@Dave Moran: Its not even the rub of the green, they don’t even get the blatently obvious calls. At least not until the game is pretty much done and dusted. It’s appears to be policy among officials and IRFU at this stage.
I completely agree with Mack. Historically Argentina and Italy have been too polite over atrocious decisions, I would say Connacht have been the same. The TV world press report on our other Provinces so the officials know that they will be scrutinised ,I’m delighted that Connacht have spoken up.
He was so upset with some decisions he felt he had to voice his opinion and he is correct, I think the referee was under pressure from the home crowd, but then all home fans do exactly the same it’s not a leinster thing and Mack wasn’t saying that but fair play to him…
@Darragh O’Leary: he was correct with what he said but doing so live on air in a post match presser will achieve nothing other than piss off the judication/world rugby bureaucrats . Would have preferred It came from Wilkins instead of him just sitting there .. This will just set a presidence for more players to undermine the officials in this manner if not dealt with with some sort of sanction. Assume they will make an example of him..
@Stuart: There is a saying “the squeaking wheel gets the oil” . Same principle here. Nobody will listen to Connacht unless they scream and shout. All very well to have protocols if the system works. If dysfunctional, as it is, somebody has to say no fu&king more – kudos to Hansen for stepping up. Connacht are treated as second class by the entire system. Also Refs now seek to be the main actor of the piece which is so annoying. Most are openly biased from what I see. Famous players get way more latitude than the lesser known guys hence the negative bias towards Connacht. The officialdom need to be confronted or things will not change.
@Stuart: can’t make an example of him when he was speaking the truth. Then they’d be forced to do something about the officiating in the first half. They definitely won’t want to do that. It’ll be let fizzle out
@anthony davoren: There is a code of conduct that every player signs up to and if he/she publicly questions the honesty or integrity of a referee they are in breach of that code, even if they are or just believe they are speaking the truth. I would imagine Hansen will have to be disciplined by Connacht but we won’t necessarily hear about it. It is a slippery slope from Mack at a press conference to your Under 16s player or coach speaking “their truth” to a volunteer referee at the side of a pitch on Sunday morning!!
@Paul Ennis: Let’s be honest here, Connacht were awarded 15 penalties and Leinster had 2 yellow cards. Everyone saying they never get anything is just simply wrong. A player directly after a game is speaking with emotion, not necessarily fact and I think it’s fairly clear Mack did not relook at the incident. The ref teams are human and home advantage is a real thing but the way they went about criticising the ref during the game was wrong, as was this after game outburst. Despite the claims it is making excuses about a game they could have won but failed to. If someone wants to do some actual analysis of consistent decisions missed other than this anecdotal nonsense then I’m all ears but the constant ref bashing after games from clueless fans is getting tiresome.
@Paul Ennis: There’s is no reason not to have another referee (like Nigel Owens) offering commentary for big games regarding the referee’s performance and feedback on decisions, just like they do for players. We have seen terrible decisions, and sometimes lack of action from the TMO, officials need to be called out in order to reduce such errors in the future.
The Ulster game against Munster was an example. Needed to have more TMO involvement for high challenges and dangerous tackles (particularly at the end of the game), even if just to show that they were considered and nothing in them. I think the referee got it wrong on a few occasions. Which is fine, we’re all human, but the TMO must act to help reduce errors.
@PJ Smith: In comparison to the other home game I thought the Leinster vs Connacht was well officiated. The referee was clear about decisions made and explained them when requested.
@Paul Ennis: I would imagine there’s also a code and standard officials must abide by also and they didn’t. The protocols aren’t working otherwise this wouldn’t be repeatedly happening so it was time something was openly said. Nothing will happen to Hansen
@Paul Ennis: also Wilkins came out in support of Hansen since then so don’t hold your breath about Connacht disciplining him. Wilkins was delighted he said it because he himself could not say it as a coach
@PJ Smith: Very well put
@anthony davoren: Wilkins won’t get a say in the matter. Have you ever even read the code of conduct in your local rugby club?
According to the Munster rugby experts, Macs long-term injury was caused by him being in the wrong and that Hodnett was totally in the right. Strange that it’s only being called out now for what it was – a total cheap shot from Hodnett.
@James: Hansen showed two steroetypes to be accurate: foul-mouthed Aussie and Connacht whinger.
@John Buckley: That says an awful lot more about you than it does him
@John Buckley: munster fan calling someone a whinger….i can only assume you like the sound of breaking glass…
@John Buckley: your comment is totally out of order
@Jonny Hellzapoppin: it’s called leadership….thisnis the language used in dressing rooms as well..
@John Buckley: or alternatively just honest…which is hard found these days
@John Buckley: bitter comment with a red flag concerning the author of the comment
@John Buckley: Last time I looked he was an Irish passport carrying paddy….unlike some of the Irish lads you have down in Munster who turn out to be saffers after all is said and done.
I looked back at the match last night. I think Connacht were hard done by at one scrum where they should have had a penalty. This happens in every match where a team doesn’t get the right scrum decision, ask Porter if in doubt. Jenning’s yellow card was the correct decision, stepped across and buried his shoulder in McGrath’s chest. Barron’s and O’brie n’s cards were also correct.Ioane’s clash with McCarthy deserved a penalty as there was head contact in the tackle.His clash with Tector looked like an accidental clash. Now even though Barret’s clearout on Aki looked innocent enough I was surprised it wasn’t looked at. There was no head contact as far I could make out but I think Barrett’s arm brushed Aki’s head while he smiled as he tapped his head.Connacht got many decisions in their favour as the penalty count would suggest. I think Leinster will have questions themselves regarding the officiating of the break down and lineout.IMO Connacht got away with murder at ruck time. They came to lay down a marker which is admirable but time and again the counter ruck resulted in illegal bodies preventing the Leinster clear out and impeding the scrum half. The Leinster lineout was a shambles for two reasons. Gus’s throwing was not good while Connacht threw bodies up into the air where respecting the gap became an optional extra. Both sides may have frustration with a poor refereeing display but on this stand alone match I don’t think Mack Hansen’s view that the refereeis biasedis as authentic as he thinks it is.
@Tom Reilly: well said.
Hansen needs to stop whinging!
@Tom Reilly: Na, sorry. Twas far more obvious than that.. I’ve taped it and u always got the impression connacht were going to get penailsed as they went thru the phases. Always felt they’d get penalused before they got to scoring distance
@Tom Reilly: Spot on. Connacht need to look at themselves here and ask how they lost the game. Leinster were poor in the second half and Connacht couldn’t take advantage of that and they want to blame someone else for it. If leinster had of put out their first team there would be no talk about refs etc.
@Tom Reilly: I have not looked back on the lineout and ruck… my view on those types of incident is that referees tend to manage those areas of the game consistently (good or bad depending on you perspective). Both teams get to adjust to his/her style. I agree with everything else you say except the Jordie clear out on Bundee. From only 1 replay angle, it looked very much like a shoulder on head and therefore card for me. The force was not excessive, so maybe he gets away with a yellow. But it was illegal and dangerous. I think that was Macks main gripe from this game was that the TMO didn’t even refer it for on pitch review.
@Tom Reilly: This is a fair reflection. It’s nice that someone actual brings some factual based analysis instead of high level, anecdotal claims.
@Paul Ennis: I too was surprised that the TMO didn’t review the Bundee incident. From what I could make out was that Barrett went in low with his head definitely to the Left of Aki’s. His right shoulder would have connected with Aki’s right shoulder while Barrett’s right arm may have brushed Aki’s head. Aki himself was no way hurt and seemed pretty jovial about the whole episode, tapping his head and smiling.If the Gus McCarthy, Iaone incident was only a penalty then you could argue that the Aki one was not even a penalty. In the McCarthy incident there is clear contact with the head where his head is clearly jolted sideways. IMO the ref was lenient and didn’t even want to review it which would refute anti Connacht bias, similarly in the Jenning’s incident.
With all due respect lads a lot of ye have decided to frame it as Mack blaming the ref for being anti Connacht, and that costing Connacht the game. I think a lot of ye have missed the point of Mack’s comments.
@David Hickey: he said they were playing against 16. How is that anything but blaming the ref?
@Tom Reilly:
Well that is how you explain away a shoulder to head from a tucked arm coming in from the side…
You could make it easier for yourself if close your eyes and scream La La La
On reflection, maybe this outburst was orchestrated as the whole club are peeved and will not get any decisions of note unless they throw the toys out of the pram, I agree with his statements and question the standard of officiating. Connacht had a great chance in winning this and with better officiating, they might well have?
It’s not home advantage that’s the issue, Connacht get reffed differently in Interpro’s even when the home side…
I would imagine Hansen, and Connacht’s, frustrations are cumulative over the course of a few seasons. The sad fact of the matter is that referees are myopic when it comes to arbitrating in the interpros and Connacht are forever put on the hindtit, a place where history decrees they should be and few officials have had the integrity over the years to buck the trend. It is almost as if when the ball comes back on the Connacht side against the head whether it be lineout or breakdown the assumption is made that it could only have done so through cheating. But the irony is this game was not a good example of one-sided officiating, aside from one appalling scrum decision, and, by and large, the ref had a reasonable game. I do agree, however, that the Barrett incident should have been scrutinised, though, to my mind, it was no more than a penalty. I remember many years ago Connacht performed an analysis of penalties conceded and the startling revelation was that, on average, they were penalised something like 20% more times by Irish referees in the interpros than they were in games against Scottish, Welsh and Italian opposition. Precious little has changed!
Big fan of Hansen. His abilities on the pitch and his character off it. But this is a poor outburst. He should be concentrating on getting his previous form back as he’s been pretty poor and Connacht need to develop a harder edge. There are times when a referee absolutely rides a team (am thinking Carley any time Leinster play or Frank Murphy’s abysmal one sided performance in the URC semi final in 2023) but that game on Saturday was even enough in terms of referee engagement. The men from the west got away with their fair share too. If connacht ate aggrieved at referees performances against them, so be it but Saturday was not one of those.
@Carmine Lorenzo: ref screwed Connacht
At the scrum time, LH of Leinster put his left hand to the ground after being pushed by TH of Connacht (not early). Ref called scrum again. I can’t understand why not penalty?
@ciaran oconnor: Cos it’s Leinster
Two Leinster men. Again. They never asked Gavin Duffy what he thought about those calls the other night. Wonder why that was? Home advantage me hole. If that was true it’d even itself out & Connacht would get those calls in their favour in Galway. They don’t
@Jonny Hellzapoppin: Murray ass nose is as sly as they come
Hanson absolutely right, this has been going on for years, they will crucify Hansen for this.
Would make it a lot easier on Refs if only refs saw footage and not the pantomimes from the crowd with every slow motion, just put a monitor for ref and ARs and TMO would help .
Hold on. Let’s be a bit realistic and coherent here. Hansen is complaining about some calls that went against them yet the same referee gave Leinster not one but two yellow cards. He’s frustrated because he plays in a team full of ex-Leinster players who lose, so when things don’t go there way he feels entitled to complain. He didn’t exactly have the best game himself. In fact, he was anonymous in fact, similarly anonymous throughout the Autumn Internationals. Leinster were missing pretty much their entire 1st team and also struggled because of the early withdrawals of Conan and Deegan through headknocks. Hansen an unhappy camper, looking to boost his team through his own ego and career. Connacht are sitting 10th in the URC table 10th! Let that sink in.
@Harry O’ Callaghan: Leinster got 2 yellows, but should have had 2 yellows AND a red. So saying the ref is fair because he got 2 calls correct, and the BIGGEST one wrong isn’t the gotcha you seem to think it is.
@Harry O’ Callaghan: not some calls… Two fundamental calls that would have had a huge impact on the game …that’s the reality
@Rua Rogan: If Barrett’s clean out was a red then so was Ioanes hit on McCarthy, much more force in that one too, I reckoned he’d damaged McCarthys cheek bone too…
@anthony davoren: If you need to get players sent off to win then you’re in a bad spot. Notwithstanding that, the TMO reviews all incidents and makes the decision, with more information than the brief replays you see on TV, whether or not to advise the ref. The amount of people here who don’t understand the system is worrying.
@PJ Smith: not about need it’s about what’s right and wrong. We lost our player as a result of foul play that wasn’t punished. Of course that affects the outcome of the game. Don’t be so naive
@anthony davoren: There was no foul play in that incident, he went off as his head hit the ground. So no, you didn’t lose a player because of foul play. The only question is about the Aki incident. TMO reviews all such incidents with all angles and decides if the ref needs to see it. In this instance, the logical conclusion is he decided it wasn’t foul play, presumably because another angle showed it as shoulder to shoulder, and so it didn’t get to the ref. This is far more logical than the TMO and ref are corrupt and out to get Connacht. There is only one person being wilfully naive in this instance given the ref gave 15 penalties to Connacht and 2 yellows to Leinster, one for persistent infringing but Connacht didn’t even get a warning despite 1 less penalty.
@Harry O’ Callaghan: stick to soccer you haven’t a clue
IMO Wilkins is a limited coach. His side have shown little consistency and in many games his players lose interest and give up. The lack of effort in tackling Osborne and Tector is a prime example of the malaise in standards and this is a recurring theme. Not censoring Hansen for his comments will not impress his bosses and will leave him walking a tight rope for the rest of the season. Throwing a smoke screen around your own inadequacies will not cut the mustard long time.
@Tom Reilly: it’s amusing that you have issue with Wilkins coaching as opposed to the diabolical officiating of the first half in the game which was clearly one sided. The fact you even use the word censored proves it all.
@anthony davoren: I’m talking about Wilkins not having the sense to tell Hansen to keep his mouth closed. As a former coach I would have been livid if one of my players deliberately did something which could potentially have serious consequences for the team either a ban for the player or both him and his coach.
@Tom Reilly: former coach
As far as I remember Hodnett managed a yellow card for a tackle that was potentially career ending
@Fintan O’Halloran: my memory is that it was not even given as a penalty
@Reggordon: yep, Hodnett wasn’t even penalised for doing Hansen dirty….
Being at the game, Leinster was under pressure at the 77-minute mark when a Connacht player knocked on from an attacking position in the 22. The game could/should have been won there, but…
The earlier Ioane head contact was much clearer foul play and only a penalty after a number of interventions from the TMO, ref clearly had an agenda of trying not to give cards.
Perhaps that influenced the TMO decision not to pursue the JB contact particularly as that sequence of plays ended with a Connacht penalty. First contact was JB’s head to BA’s shoulder so TMO didn’t refer??
I thought the JB one a yellow if he was very unlucky, the JI one could easily have been red but mitigated to yellow. Given the ref the JB one wouldn’t have been a yellow. It was never a red.
That’s one rub of the green for Connacht. It wasn’t the only one in that game let alone other games
@jajosullivan@aol.com: stop I don’t even know where to begin there is so much nonsense in this comment.
@jajosullivan@aol.com: you’re spouting your opinion as fact, the Ioane one on McCarthy was fairly innocuous to me, but was a pen. To me the Barrett one seemed like a very reckless clear out, with far more danger. Then there were a multitude of smaller decisions which seemed to go against us. There’s obvious bias from all sides, but don’t think you’re right because you believe you’re own bias, Mack is well entitled to be annoyed. Let’s not pretend ye aren’t well capable of complaining.
Good move by Wilkins ! Totally set up. Clever in fairness ! Mack was given a job and did it well. Alot of it shite but hit the spot
We, the commenters on this platform see the refereeing decisions made on the pitch which can be faulty and even biased in some situations. Then we apply our own logic which can also be faulty and biased…I mean how many times have we seen comments here disagree over penalty/yellow/red card decisions? It would be interesting and, I’m sure, beneficial for world rugby or someone to start an ongoing study on the refereeing decisions and use the detailed results internally to improve things while giving publishing general findings of the study, for example, “Refereeing decisions were correct 93% of the time in the 2024/2025 URC season, this is up from 91% in 2023/2024 season.” or “Home teams benefited from incorrect decisions 50% of the time (meaning there was no bias)” etc…
@Rob O’Connor: There has been research, refs do give benefit of the doubt slightly more to home teams than away teams. Crowds do influence refs behaviour. It evens out over a season with home and away games.
All sorts of Psychological biases play out when people watch sport let alone play/officiate sport.
Confirmation bias is a big one, pink flamingo theory plays a big part of it and never underestimate the power of denial.
Basically refereeing is very, very difficult. Even with endless replays and angles people will still see things differently.
Offending like beauty is in the brain of the beholder
About time a player came out and said how they feel.The level of officiating is a disgrace and they should be heald accountable like everyone else.Fair played to him for saying what he feels.If more players and coaches were honest maybe the refs would finally start refing matches evenly
A huge big ball of Rubbish… .Mack top of the list. There are channels to do what Connacht did, media isn’t the place. Basically Connacht are trying to influence the refs though the media Rassie style. Poor. As I’m a grown up, I’ve learned to be suspicious of statements with NEVER in the sentence or EVER, these are the words toddlers tend to use because they lack maturity. The world isn’t that black and white. It’s a sad mind set…. everyone is against me! only one outcome from that.
I think the real question is how does Jackman get away with stating the bleedin obvious every week and in such a dull ‘father stone’ way?
Murray assnose doing Leinsters dirty work