Wilkins: Connacht complaints not about getting Leinster players in trouble
Rugby Stadium Leinster During At The Match The By To Photo Between In Moran/sportsfile Dublin Gestures And Championship The Aviva United Brendan Mack Hansen Connacht Of Assistant Referee Connacht
Connacht head coach Pete Wilkins said they are not trying to get any Leinster player in trouble as the fallout from Mack Hansen’s explosive post-match comments continue into the second round of the Christmas derby games.
Hansen said that it ‘seemed like 16 men against us’ in their 20-12 loss to Leinster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday and ‘it’s just getting to the point where it’s starting to really piss us off because we just feel we’re getting played out of games and we never get any calls’, in an astonishing broadside against match officials.
Hansen highlighted hits on Bundee Aki and Josh Ioane which weren’t investigated to the same degree as hits on Leinster players, with Wilkins post-match and again Monday morning welcoming Hansen’s ‘honesty’ and stating that there is constant communication with the match officials and Tappe Henning, the South African who is head of match officials for the URC.
“There are always conversations you can have with the citing officer,” said Hansen. “For us, the key thing, even Mack’s comments the other night, nobody is trying to get a Leinster player in trouble or get them sent off or have them in a situation where they are missing games.
“We have a good relationship with Leinster as a club and some of our players are very close to them, they play in the same Irish team as them. So it’s not about getting Leinster players in trouble.
“Mack’s comments were more about looking for inconsistency in reactions to moments in the game. That’s where his frustration came from. There are always conversations after the event. But his frustrations were borne of a feeling of inconsistency.”
Wilkins, whose side face Ulster in a crunch URC clash next Saturday at Dexcom Stadium, said Hansen shed a light on what he feels like for a player when they believe match officials are inconsistent.
“I think every coaching room feels that they are hard done by, especially when they lose. That’s why we have that process there with the URC referees in order to send feedback, we send clips and we send comments. The referee responds and Tappe Henning, the refereeing boss of the URC responds so I don’t think we’re any different to anyone else in that sense.
“Where Mack was coming from the other evening was how that feels as a player on the field in terms of momentum flow of decision or absence of decisions at times. So he spoke honestly about what it feels like when you are in that arena.
"For me, all I can do is go through the channels which are available to me which is to provide that feedback which we’re in the process of doing from the weekend,” added Wilkins.