Ireland’s Mack Hansen calls out ‘big media explosion’ and reveals inspiring Andy Farrell story that convinced him to play against Springboks despite ‘agony’
Mack Hansen has expressed his delight that the Six Nations worked out for Ireland and head coach Andy Farrell, inset
Injured Ireland winger Mack Hansen has called out the negativity of the Irish media that blew up over head coach Andy Farrell in the early stages of this year’s Six Nations.
The back-to-back 2023-2024 champions endured a poor start to the 2026 edition, losing badly away to France and then needing to come from behind to beat Italy in Dublin. This underwhelming beginning sparked speculation about Farrell’s future as Ireland boss.
Hansen, who watched the situation unfold from afar due to his season-ending foot injury, found it amusing that the same critics then demanded after the team’s second-place finish that the head coach should instead get a contract extension.
Having originally been in a moon boot for six weeks following surgery in December, Hansen is now able to move about again on his feet, and he returned to Australia last weekend to attend the wedding of an old school friend.
“Pretty special…”
The Australian, who moved to Ireland in 2021 to join Connacht from the Brumbies, has now followed up his weekend of nuptials revelry by joining former Wallabies Drew Mitchell, Matt Giteau and Adam Ashley-Cooper in the studio for the latest edition of their KOKO Kick Offs and Kick Ons podcast show hosted by James Rochford.
Hansen was part of the Irish squad for the most recent Autumn Nations Series, scoring a first-half hat-trick against Australia in Dublin and he was soon asked for his verdict on his team coming within a Thomas Ramos penalty kick for France of winning the Six Nations.
“I don’t know if you guys were following the media leading up to it,” he began. “Like, when we got pumped by France, it was dire straits for a while, talking about getting rid of Faz [Andy Farrell], we need to do this, we need to do this different.
“The chat was crazy. With all that going on, it was a pretty big media explosion just on negativity, so to see them go through that while it was happening and put out the performances that they did, it actually makes it pretty special as well. Like, you guys know, when the media is against you, it can go one or two ways. It probably went the opposite way for England.”
Brian O’Driscoll suggests Ireland’s ‘scar tissue’ could be behind ‘anti-Farrell sentiment’
Asked how Farrell would have reacted to Ireland getting written off, Hansen said: “Faz’s whole thing is everybody outside this room, who cares! It’s what’s in this room, what’s important is what we think of each other and what we can think we can do, which is the way you need to take it.
“He very much focuses on what we can control and unfortunately you can’t control what the media is doing. It’s just funny then that once we have a really good Six Nations, people are like, sign him up for another two years. Same people that were saying get rid of him three weeks before.”
Sticking with the Six Nations, Hansen was asked about the title-deciding Ramos kick and what it was like for the Irish having to cheer on England in the hope they could get the result that would have given the title to Ireland.
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“A bit sickening because you just knew he [Ramos] was going to get it. Like, he is red hot, never looked like missing. Wasn’t even like a curler, it was just dead straight. But again, they put themselves in that situation to win it.
“At the end of the day, we’ve had that. I think my first Six Nations was pretty similar, we needed England to beat France to win it and you’re just sitting there watching it and it ends up being good craic.
“The whole tournament is over, you’ve done well and I just know they would have been sitting around and how weird it is for them to cheer for England as well. It’s funny, everybody getting up for England. It makes every Irishman sick to their stomach.”
Hansen also revealed the latest update on the injured foot, adding: “It’s going really well. I actually got out of the boot two weeks early. Thank God. I was in that for six weeks in the end, in the boot the whole time. For some reason, I wasn’t allowed the nights off, so I was in the boot the whole time. And for the first two weeks, I had to have my foot up for 50 minutes of every hour.”
When quizzed on what Farrell’s best attribute as a coach is, Hansen revisited his previous injury, a finger dislocation that looked like keeping him out of the final match of the Autumn Nations Series last November, the Aviva Stadium match versus the Springboks.
“His best attribute is that he just knows when to push you that little bit further or when to put an arm around you. A lot of coaches get that so wrong; when it’s time to pick someone up and you boot them back down, it’s terrible for their confidence. He just seems to nail those little bits every single time. That’s what I’ve found.
“Before we played South Africa, I dislocated my finger; it broke through the skin on the Tuesday and I was in agony. I was getting these nerve blockers in to numb it up going in to play the best team in the world.
“I was, ‘I don’t know if I can do this’, and I remember he sat down and read a story of this kid who cycled from England to Australia to watch the Ashes. Halfway up, he fell off his bike and broke his cheeks and whatever, but ended up making it and he goes, ‘Mate, if he can do that, you can play with a sore finger’.
“I was like ‘I could also sit at the Ashes and drink p*** with this broken finger as well’. But looking back, I would have really, really regretted not playing that. He gave me the push I needed, massively.
“I was really, really hemming and hawing, ‘I’m not doing it’, and those pushes that he gave me, I am so thankful I played in that game and tested myself.”
Hansen also confirmed there was only one change in how Farrell coaches with Ireland and how he coached on last year’s British and Irish Lions tour in Australia. “With the Lions, he didn’t change much. The only way he changed was the way he talked about players.
“Obviously, when we are playing Scotland and England and stuff (with Ireland) he needs to be like, ‘These boys are s***, we’re better’. Obviously, you need to talk the opposition team down and then come the Lions tour, you’re, ‘Why did you pick him? I thought he was crap’,” explained Hansen, laughing. “So, that was probably the only change.”
It’s now five years since the soon-to-be 28-year-old gave up on trying to become a regular first choice at the Brumbies, a decision he didn’t regret. “People always go on about the Brumbies thing, but I had Andy Muirhead ahead of me, who has played 100 games.
“I had Tom Wright, I had Tom Banks. Solomone Kata has just come over from league. Dan McKellar’s thing was always, ‘They are playing well for me, and they have got money in the bank’. So it was quite hard for me to make my way into the team.
“It wasn’t like I had nobodies in front of me and that I didn’t get on with Dan. I love Dan and still get on; I have a lot of respect for him. I can understand why, but it then gets to a point where all these guys are staying, the only option is for me to leave. In hindsight, it was the right move and very, very thankful that I did it.”
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