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Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has backed in-form Mack Hansen to swiftly adapt to the demands of Test rugby after handing him a debut in the Guinness Six Nations opener against Wales.
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Australia-born Hansen has been rewarded for a string of standout displays for Connacht with a place on the left wing for Saturday’s sold-out Dublin clash with Wayne Pivac’s reigning champions.
Hansen, who has an Irish mother, trained with Farrell’s squad during the autumn and has been fast-tracked into the starting XV following an injury to James Lowe.
“He’s a smart rugby player, he makes things happen,” Farrell said of the 23-year-old. “He knows how to get himself involved in the game. He’s got great feel, a good skillset across the board.
“It’s tough when you first come into international camps but the ones who do it best hit the ground running and end up getting to a good few caps.
“They’re the guys that are able to be told once, maybe twice, and pick things up straight away and Mack certainly did that.”
Hansen – the United Rugby Championship’s leading try-scorer – has crossed six times in nine appearances for his province since moving from Canberra-based club Brumbies last year.
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He comes into a relatively-settled Ireland team, with Tadhg Beirne replacing Iain Henderson in the second row the only other change to the team which started November’s stunning win over New Zealand.
Ulster captain Henderson has resumed full training following an ankle injury suffered in December and is expected to be involved for the round-two trip to France.
Centre Robbie Henshaw is a surprise omission from Farrell’s 23-man squad having overcome a slight groin issue, while Keith Earls also misses out and is set for a scan on a hamstring strain suffered on Wednesday.
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Bundee Aki – who excelled in the 29-20 success over the All Blacks – has been selected ahead of fellow British and Irish Lion Henshaw and will partner Garry Ringrose in midfield, with Ulster’s James Hume providing back-up from the bench.
“Robbie had a little bit of a niggle on an adductor towards the end of last week, a good few days of rehab has got him back up to speed again,” explained Farrell.
“He missed a couple of sessions there and that allowed the other three guys to get through their work.
“Robbie’s fine. The rehab has done him good, so Bundee and Ringer get to start.”
Ireland go into the championship on an eight-match winning run, having produced their finest rugby of the Farrell era during autumn victories over Japan, New Zealand and Argentina.
Farrell, whose squad this week returned from a training camp in Portugal, believes team spirit remains high.
“Portugal was great because we worked unbelievably hard,” he said.
“The lads gelled but, more than anything, they were pushing each other hard day in and day out to get to a point where we know we’re going to improve.
“All in all, it was a great camp and a great build up for what’s going to be an exciting start.”
Depleted Wales travel across the Irish Sea missing a host of star names, including captain Alun Wyn Jones and fellow Lions George North, Leigh Halfpenny, Ken Owens, Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi.
Farrell dismissed the significance of the opposition’s selection issues.
“It’s all irrelevant to us,” he said. “Wales are a fantastic side, look at the history, it tells it all.
“It’s all about us, our preparation and our performance. We want to keep pushing the boundary as far as that’s concerned.
“That’s what we’ve been concentrating on, let’s see if we can perform on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, Farrell confirmed Ulster trio Robert Baloucoune, Nick Timoney and Michael Lowry will return to international duty on Sunday after being permitted to play for their province against Connacht on Friday.
“They’ll be back, they’re getting an opportunity to play on Friday and that’ll be great for them,” he said.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
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