MACK HANSEN’S COLLECTION of tattoos continues to grow. Indeed, he finds it hard to keep up himself with what’s new since people have last seen him.
This is a man who has a tattoo of his Connacht team-mate Oisín Dowling’s face on his thigh. He also has the words ‘Gerry Dooley’ on his leg, which is Hansen’s nickname for another of his friends in Connacht, prop Peter Dooley.
Hansen admits to being a bit of a “picture book” and he has even taken on a bet with former Scotland second row Jim Hamilton ahead of the Six Nations. If Ireland beat Scotland in round four, Hamilton will have to get a tattoo in tribute to Hansen, but if Ireland lose, the Connacht wing will have to do vice versa.
“I’m a man of my word,” said 24-year-old Hansen this week in confirming he will go ahead with it.
He doesn’t like to think about Ireland losing but says he’ll do his best to hide the words ‘Big Jim’ if he comes out on the wrong side of the bet.
“I’m thinking maybe bottom of the foot or something where it won’t be seen too much,” said Hansen.
“Foot or arse.”
Whatever about the Scotland game, Hansen kept bringing the chat back to Wales this weekend in Cardiff. He’s very much on page when it comes to underlining that Ireland are only thinking about the Principality Stadium.
Hansen says they aim to win the Six Nations and admits there’s excitement about this year’s World Cup in the back of his mind, but the job at hand is to win in Cardiff on Saturday.
He’s only heading into his second Six Nations with Andy Farrell’s side but already Hansen is a familiar fixture in this set-up. Indeed, he only arrived in Ireland in the summer of 2021 but he is firmly at home in Galway, where he has bought his own house.
His family visited from Australia recently but weren’t able to stay around to take in the Six Nations.
“They’ve actually just left,” said Hansen. “They were here for eight weeks around Christmas time and whatnot. They left last week.
“I don’t know why they didn’t do Six Nations. They’re pretty much like me, [thinking] just in case I didn’t get selected. That was kind of the mindset for that, so thanks mum and dad for that!”
Hansen’s mother, Castlemartyr-born Diana O’Shea, is how he qualifies for Ireland so it was nice for her to be able to visit some of her family.
“They went down to Cork and whatnot, loved Galway, they’re big into going into pubs and every second place there is a pub so it’s fine, they gelled there,” said Hansen.
“Then they did a lot of travel around Europe – France, London, Italy. They had a very good trip, they enjoyed it. Mum is from here obviously so she got to see a lot of family and they loved it. They’ll be back as soon as they can.”
It is interesting to hear Hansen say that he had some doubts about being involved in the Six Nations. Given that he had such a successful first year with Ireland, starting nine Tests and scoring three tries, it seems unusual for Hansen not to have been more confident of featuring prominently again. He has been a brilliant wildcard for Ireland.
But he explained that competition in the Irish back three keeps him on edge.
“As soon as you let up, you’re going to lose your spot and everyone knows that. We’ve got such good depth,” said Hansen.
“Some of the guys who are going to miss out this week have been playing class and have been nominated for European player of the year and have been in the past as well. So there’s no room to ease up which is good because it keeps you on your game for sure.”
Hansen had some brilliant experiences last year, earning the player of the match award on debut against Wales and scoring tries against France, Fiji, and South Africa, as well as helping Ireland to a Triple Crown and their series success in New Zealand.
“Test rugby stuff’s easy, isn’t it!” joked Hansen.
His stunning score against the French was a standout moment, with Hansen racing onto a Joey Carbery restart and catching the ball overhead in a stunning flash of his skill before finishing.
“A lot of people bring it up to me all the time. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had watched it a couple of times but I haven’t watched it for ages,” said Hansen of that score.
“It’s an amazing thing to happen to me for sure, but it’s kind of done now in my mind. It’s probably something that I can look back at later on. I’ll definitely be showing my kids every two minutes, I’d say!”
Hansen recalls that whole experience in Paris last year as being vital to his development and to Ireland’s development.
He’s not afraid to admit that it was a somewhat overwhelmingly new situation for him with 80,000 people making so much noise at Stade de France. That experience against les Bleus should stand them in good stead for the closed-roof racket in Cardiff this weekend.
“I’m not going to lie, it was a little shock to the system,” said Hansen of that trip to Paris last year.
“I’d never really played in front of anything like that before. They were just bouncing around the whole time, screaming at the top of their lungs, you don’t know what they’re saying.
“I think it will be a lot like Cardiff as well, even though they speak English!
“But we learned a lot from that game, for sure. A lot of the guys put their hand up and said that it shocked a lot of us, so it’s something that we’ve been working on and I don’t think it gets much bigger than playing there in Cardiff.
“I’ve heard plenty of stories from multiple people from Ireland camps, from Australian camps, from everywhere, and they say it’s an unbelievable place to play. It’s some stadium and I’m excited for it.”
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