It’s fair to say he’s establishing himself as a bit of a cult hero on the west coast of Ireland.
After he helped Connacht destroy the Ospreys in wind and icy rain in Galway last time out, Mack Hansen cut to the chase by declaring: “Everyone was absolutely freezing their balls off.”
Undoubtedly, he’s the United Rugby Championship’s player of the moment, topping the charts for tries, clean breaks, defenders beaten and metres gained.
He was certainly too hot for the Ospreys.
In appalling conditions touched on above, he had a hand in three tries, including one he scored himself with a classy finish that saw him cut past two defenders and touch down despite the attentions of another. The score proved the trigger for a 46-18 beating for the Welsh team.
Australia-born Hansen is Ireland-qualified through his Cork-born mother and received a call for the recent autumn series, and a nice story has emerged about how he came to sign for Connacht from the Canberra-based Brumbies.
Apparently, his inter-continental move came after a barman’s recommendation to the team’s head coach Andy Friend.
Speaking on RTE’s Against The Head, Ex-Dragons coach and top Irish pundit Bernard Jackman explained: “Andy Friend’s son drank in the same pub as him and basically they became friends.
“Apparently he’s good craic, he’s a bit wild.
“Andy heard that he had an Irish passport, so when he went home [to Canberra] he went for a chat and asked the barman what kind of character he was, and he said he’s a good fella.
“He got called in, let’s not forget, the week of the Japan game. He got called in because apparently [Australia head coach] Dave Rennie was sniffing around him. He’s been in the Australian system but didn’t hit the heights that he’s hit now.
“He’s a sevens player. He has come to a wet and windy Galway, conditions that he would have never played in before.”
Hansen has a nice line in self-deprecating humour as well, previously explaining how an attempt to learn a trade after leaving school hadn’t gone to plan. “I was probably the worst electrician in Canberra,” he revealed in a piece published on The42. “I was crap, not good at all. There was really hard maths, I didn’t expect that. You’ve got to be pretty switched on, which I was not at the time.”
But the ex-apprentice sparky is flicking the right switches in professional rugby.
One social media user called his early efforts for Connacht “incredible”.
Well done that barman in Canberra.
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