The highlight of Mack Hansen’s night was his second try in Test rugby, and first at home. That, in truth, was a relatively routine run-in when for once Ireland reached the wide channels, but although the Boks’ blitz defence cut off the supply lines, Hansen’s licence to roam and to thrill in equal measure means that never makes him a spectator for long.
In the move which led to Johnny Sexton opting for the corner and Josh van der Flier’s maul try, Hansen featured three times – carrying over the gain line twice when taking inside passes from Sexton and Jamison Gibson-Park and once popping up as first receiver.
“Oh, it’s great,” said Hansen of his role. “I’ve got 11 or 14 on my back but I’ve got a licence to roam and try and fit in where I can. I think the more that us wings are getting involved and coming off the wing, the more it’s going to help create extra numbers.
“Faz and all the coaching staff, Catty, Si, even Paulie and Fogs, who don’t have too much to do with us, you know, they’re always encouraging you just to express yourself and play your game. That’s exactly what you want to hear when you’re running up the pitch.”
Although this was only his seventh cap, Hansen has crammed a lot into his Test career, and this was very different again.
“Yeah, that was a proper Test slog. They defend pretty differently to everyone. You kind of know what’s coming but it’s still very hard to play against. They tried to bring us out of our game plan but we just stuck with it and, yeah, just got stuck in.
“When we’re doing our things right we know there’s not a team that can handle what we’re doing. So we’ve just got to keep sticking to our key principles and we’ll end up coming out on top.”
Meanwhile, although it’s not quite on the scale of his infamous hour-long video dissecting all the supposed refereeing injustices piled upon his team in the first Test between the Springboks and the Lions, Rassie Erasmus has again taken to social media to highlight officiating discrepancies during Ireland’s 19-16 win over South Africa. The Springboks’ director of rugby posted a video on social media highlighting two similar incidents which were handled differently by referee Nika Amashukeli.
The first came in the build-up to Ireland’s second try, when it appeared that the ball was kicked out of a Springbok breakdown by an Irish player, but play was allowed to go on before wing Mack Hansen scored in the corner.
In the second incident the ball is kicked out of an Ireland breakdown and the Springboks are penalised, just as Eben Etzebeth gathers and streaks upfield.
Last Saturday’s Test was the first time Erasmus was permitted at a stadium since completing a matchday ban handed down by World Rugby for criticising match officials during last year’s Lions series. The common denominator both after the first Test and last Saturday is, of course, that the Springboks lost. It seems an ungracious and even laughable contribution, in sharp contrast to Jacques Nienaber and Siya Kolisi.
