Mack Hansen, the 23-year-old Connacht winger, has been named to make his Ireland debut in Saturday's 2022 Six Nations opener against Wales at the Aviva Stadium. Hansen thus continues a remarkable impact on Irish rugby since arriving from the Brumbies in the summer.
In all, Andy Farrell has made six changes to the starting XV in Ireland’s last outing against Argentina in November, five of them in the backline, although more pertinently he has returned to all bar two of the side which started the superb win over New Zealand a week beforehand.
In addition to Hansen replacing the injured James Lowe, the other change from the All Blacks game sees the in-form Tadhg Beirne restored to the secondrow ahead of Iain Henderson, who doesn’t make the match-day ‘23’ after being sidelined since December 11th due to an ankle injury.
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Andrew Conway is recalled after Robert Baloucoune was chosen against Argentina, while Bundee Aki, Johnny Sexton, Jamison Gibson-Park and Jack Conan - all of whom were ruled out of the Argentinian match through injury - return.
Caelan Doris, who started at ‘8’ against Argentina, reverts to the blindside, where he scored a try and was man of the match against the All Blacks.
Rob Herring was a replacement against New Zealand but the powerful and dynamic Dan Sheehan, who won his second cap against Argentina a week later off the bench, is preferred as back-up hooker, and similarly Ryan Baird provides secondrow cover from the bench again.
Like Sheehan, the in-form and once-capped Ulster centre James Hume could be in line for his Six Nations debut off the bench, suggesting that Garry Ringrose is covering the wing and Carbery is covering fullback.
Strike rate
Granted, Hansen in part owes his selection to the absence of Lowe, as well as Jacob Stockdale, but nonetheless he has jumped up the queue on the back of an impressive landing at Connacht, where his licence to roam, employment as a strike runner off launch plays and work-rate has clearly impressed Andy Farrell and Mike Catt, in addition to his strike rate.
In nine games for Connacht he has scored six tries, and in his eight URC appearances he leads the competition in defenders beaten (38), total metres made (556) and is third in the amount of carries (90).
Doubters will question his defence, primarily based on Dan Sheehan stepping him in scoring for Leinster against Connacht at the RDS in early December, but Sheehan can do that to anyone. More flawed was the slow retreat and chargedown against Munster at the Sportsground for Conway's try, but he atoned with a couple of try-saving tackles on the same player and has made several good defensive reads, not least with an intercept try against Ulster. He also has huge scope for further improvement.
His mum, Diana O’Shea, whose family moved to Australia at the age of seven, hails from Cork. His dad, Craig, is from Sydney, where Hansen was born before the family moved to Canberra when he was young. His dad played prop and did some coaching with Manly, while his paternal grandfather played rugby league for Australia and his maternal grandfather played hurling.
Despite the time difference they, along with his grandmother and biggest fan Bettie Hansen, have been watching all his games for Connacht and now will see him make his Test debut, a prospect which neither he nor they could have imagined happening so swiftly.
“He’s a smart rugby player,” Farrell said of Hansen. “He makes things happen, he knows how to get himself involved in the game. He’s got great feel, he’s got a good skillset across the board.
“It’s tough when you come into international camps but the ones that do best and hit the ground running and end up getting a good few caps straight away are the guys that are able to pick things up straight away and Mack has certainly done that.”
It turned out that Ireland did not have a fully-fit squad to choose from after all as Farrell confirmed that Keith Earls was ruled out of consideration due to a hamstring strain suffered in training on Wednesday, and which will require a scan.
Robbie Henshaw also suffered an abductor strain “towards the end of last week” and though completely rehabbed it meant that the other centres overtook him in the pecking order for this game with a fuller workload.
The game also game fractionally too soon for Iain Henderson.
“He is back training fully. We are topping him up every day. He is going great guns and he is certainly going to be fit for the start of next week,” said Farrell.
The anticipated retention of Carbery ahead of Jack Carty was due to a combination of his familiarity from the autumn series and his ability to cover fullback.
“Joey knows how we operate because he has been in camp quite a bit through the summer and the autumn. Then you look at what you need off the bench and he covers quite a few positions there and that all adds to the picture. I know that Joey hasn’t played at all really since the injury but when do you get these people back up to speed. He is fit. The pressure that we put on ourselves at training he has excelled at so he is ready to go.”
Farrell was also “very impressed” by James Hume’s response to being a frustrated non-playing member of the squad in November.
“He has certainly buckled down and gone away from the autumn series and put his best foot forward to get back into the room for the Six Nations.”
Nor did Farrell pay much credence to Wales being written off and Ireland being installed as warm favourties.
“It’s a good side. You look at the backline and there’s danger all over isn’t there? They talk about the people that they don’t have but the people that have the opportunity this week will add to the depth by performing like they always do when they put the red jersey on.”
IRELAND: H Keenan (Leinster); A Conway (Munster), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), M Hansen (Connacht); J Sexton (Leinster, capt), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); A Porter (Leinster), R Kelleher (Leinster), T Furlong (Leinster); T Beirne ((Munster), J Ryan (Leinster); C Doris (Leinster), J van der Flier (Leinster), J Conan (Leinster).
Replacements: D Sheehan (Leinster), C Healy (Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht), R Baird (Leinster), P O'Mahony (Munster), C Murray (Munster), J Carbery (Munster), J Hume (Ulster).
