They’re saying in Ireland that Connacht’s Australian born winger Mack Hansen typifies the Galway team’s spirit, and at the first press conference of the buildup week to Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship semifinal in Cape Town it was easy to see why.
Hansen sat in front of the cyber conference with the stitches on what was a nasty gash sustained to his forehead after a clash with a teammate in last Friday’s epic 15-10 away win quarterfinal win over Ulster very prominently displayed.
“I really didn’t know what was going on,” he said of how he felt immediately following the first half incident that led to him being helped off the field to have the gaping wound repaired before re-emerging heavily bandaged after halftime.
“It wasn’t that I was concussed or anything but it was just a really, really deep sting. It just stung heaps, like I got stung by a couple of bees; I don’t really know if that’s the best way to describe it.
Then I felt blood coming down and it wasn’t until they took my headgear off and the three doctors were like, ‘Oh, Jesus’. And I was like, ‘that can’t be great’.
“They asked did I want to take a photo and I said yeah, and when they took it I was like, ‘Oh, show us the photo’ and they were like, ‘we’ll show you after the game’. I understand why now because it was a deep sting, a deep cut. John Porch (who he collided with) has a hard head, he’s come off unscathed. He’s already ugly enough so he didn’t really need another!”
CAME BACK ON AND GOT STUCK IN
What was most impressive was the way Hansen put the injury out of his mind after his return to the field. He hadn’t been back on the field long when he put in a try-saving tackle on Rob Baloucoune and then got his head into the next ruck, showing off the breakdown skills he learned by being part of the Ireland national squad.
“It’s something I really worked on in the last Irish camp, working with the coaches up there and getting my breakdown skills a lot better,” said Connacht’s import from Canberra.
“I have seen a lot of wingers starting to do it, especially Gabin Villiere from France. He was just so effective and won so many balls on the edge, and I thought: ‘why can’t I make it a skill of mine?’
Why not indeed, and it is something that the DHL Stormers opponents that Hansen will face at the DHL Stadium on Saturday will be well aware of. And the warning for the Stormers is that Hansen and his teammates aren’t intending to go into the game with anything less than the full commitment and intensity that they took onto the Kingspan Stadium field last weekend.
Hansen made it clear that he and his teammates were prepared to go through five really tough and emotional knock-out games like last week's in a row if that was what was necessary for the Irish province to repeat their fairytale win in 2016 when the competition was known as the Pro12.
HAPPY FOR STORMERS TO FEEL COMFORTABLE
He also said that in front of the big crowd expected at the semifinal they would draw on the experience of Belfast, where Connacht stopped the crowd from getting into full volume just by preventing Ulster from getting any momentum.
“They are a good team. There is no two ways about it, and losing only once at home in so long is quality,” said Hansen of the Stormers. “But it is semifinal time and anything can happen. We are going over there to do a job. The Stormers are probably feeling comfortable that they not going to Ulster this weekend and we are happy for them to keep feeling that.”
The 25-year-old Hansen believes that if there is one area that Connacht can improve against the Stormers, who he knows will probably play a more open game than Ulster did, it is their attacking play.
“Our attack was bang average, I think it was the first time we haven’t scored a try in God knows how long, but it gives us plenty to work on which is exciting coming into this Stormers week. It used to be said of us that we were a good attacking team but not a good defensive one. I would say that has changed,” he said.
MUCH BETTER TEAM THAN IN STELLENBOSCH
And it is why the Stormers would be making a mistake if they read too much into the ultimately comfortable victory they scored over Connacht in Stellenbosch in the second round of competition last September.
“I don’t really think of a specific time we turned our season around, but we had a bloody hard run in the first few games,” said Hansen looking back at a start that saw Connacht lose four of the first five games.
“We had the two finalists from last season in the first four games (Stormers in Stellenbosch and Bulls in Pretoria) but we knew we would get better as the season went on and that is what has happened. We were looking a bit rocky early on but started to come together slowly and we hit the straps at the right time and have been steadily growing our game.”
Someone might need to give Hansen a geography lesson as he appears unaware that it is autumn in Cape Town.
“We’ll get through our detail this week, what we want to do against the Stormers. but there’s going to be a couple of days when we’re just chilling out in Cape Town, enjoying the sun and the beaches maybe. But when it’s time to switch on we’re very good at that.”
So are the Stormers, so it could be a cracking semifinal provided the Connacht players don’t all catch a cold sitting on the beach in the inclement weather predicted for the Mother City later in the week.