For the Irish right-wing Mack Hansen, the words “right” and “wing” don’t always describe the position he plays.
They are a sketchy outline that chime with the number 14 on his back, although he is usually out there hugging the whitewash when he needs to be. But Hansen’s game is more than rubbing his hands and waiting for the ball.
A few weeks ago Ireland’s head of athletic performance Aled Walters namechecked him for his athleticism and ability to change direction at speed. Keith Earls, he mentioned, was another player who could do it.
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It helps as Hansen often finds himself among the centres, in the backfield and diving into the breakdown, anywhere the ball might be.
The French team that will play against Ireland on Saturday will not be bound to positions by the numbers on their back, and similarly Hansen plays an asymmetric kind of game within the Ireland team structure.
The licence to roam is given to other Irish players too but Hansen’s rugby history of playing various positions makes it natural for him to do.
“Yeah, I just want to get involved and try to help out wherever I can, whether that’s out the back of a shape, whether that’s being first receiver or waiting for it on the wing,” he says. “That’s what it’s all about, just trying to help the team wherever I can.
“I’ve played a good few positions here and there. Coming up I was a 10 pretty much my whole career, then 15 and wing. I think from being in the middle − when you see a hole you’re able to change direction to attack it − I was doing that my whole career and just bringing that into being a winger I think has helped, especially my ability to play off the ball and everything. Just kind of seeing the game a bit different.”
Ireland are a process-driven team and not prone to opening up the play or turning the game into a cavalier throw about. But with Dan Sheehan appearing on the wing, scrumhalf Jamison Gibson Park kick chasing, or left-wing James Lowe cleaning out at rucks, that aspect of French play − where the numbers can be loose arrangements − is also employed by Ireland. If the hooker finds himself in a centre position, he must in that moment find the skills to play as a centre.
“I think that’s the great thing about our team,” says Hansen. “I think it’s actually been shown a lot as well with the sort of moves that we’ve been designing. You find a lot of the time our forwards are actually the ones that are being ballplayers in the moves.
“There’s just so much freedom to express yourself on the field, and that comes from the top down, coaches always saying they want us to be ourselves. That gives you a good bit of confidence going into the game knowing that if you do mess up, it’s not the end of the world, especially if you’re actually trying something new. It’s never frowned upon in this environment, so it’s good.”
Hansen also believes the kind of game he played in Super Rugby before arriving in Ireland will help in playing against an occasionally unstructured team like France.
“Yeah, it actually does, in fairness,” he says. “I was just talking about this today. I remember when we were playing a New Zealand team, I was sort of in the ‘twos’ team, so they’d get us to play like that team was gonna play. They were some of the most fun weeks of my life, when we were playing like the Crusaders and the Chiefs. We’d be tearing up the first team and we were wondering ‘Why don’t we just play like this all the time?’”
