URC make contact with Connacht over Mack Hansen criticisms
Peter Connacht's Hansen Mack Pic: And A Tmo Martin Referee Review Assistant Watch Crombie ©inpho/james
The URC has contacted Connacht about Mack Hansen’s comments in the wake of the province’s defeat to Leinster when the Ireland winger let rip at officiating decisions made on the night and over a period of recent years.
As it is an off-field issue, there is no time specific aspect to the matter but it is expected that a hearing will follow once Connacht respond to the initial correspondence.
It will be after the Christmas period before any of that happens.
The straight-talking wing took serious umbrage on Saturday to how officials spent so long deciding if Josh Ioane had been guilty of foul play for a tackle on Gus McCarthy, while failing to give any heed to a Jordie Barrett clearout on Bundee Aki.
Hansen also bemoaned the absence of any checks after Ioane had to come off just past the half-hour for a HIA having clashed heads with Charlie Tector. Maybe most significant of all was his claim that Connacht had been the victim of bad calls for some time.
The Canberra-born international claimed Connacht had been 'pressured by 16 men instead of 15' and complained that they had been “reffed out of the game for the first 40 minutes”.
The IRFU’s Chris Busby was in charge. His TMO was Mark Patton.
“I’m not making excuses by any means but, like, when you just get it week after week, I feel it's got to be spoken about because 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 ever get any calls.”
League officials rarely take kindly to players or coaches bad-mouthing officials in public, regardless of circumstances or rights and wrongs, and Hansen’s comments have generated a huge amount of publicity and debate as to refereeing standards in the URC.
There have been examples of players and coaches receiving slaps on the wrists for criticisms of match officials in the past.
Richard Cockerill was only weeks in the league as head coach of Edinburgh when he described officiating standards as a “joke” and he continued to criticise officialdom, as he had done during his Premiership days, thereafter.
Bernard Jackman was banned for two games with one suspended after saying referee Ian Davies was “inconsistent” and had made some poor decisions after his Dragons side lost to Cardiff Blues in the league in 2018.
Bath’s Anthony Watson received a one-match ban for criticisms of a referee in 2021 but the most obvious example is Rassie Erasmus who has twice been suspended by World Rugby for his forthright views about officials in the past.
Connacht head coach Pete Wilkins contacted the URC’s head of referees, the South African Tappe Henning, immediately after the post-match press conference where Hansen had aired his views to explain the context of the player’s views.
“I contacted him to make sure that we were talking, because, obviously, I knew that there would be a reaction in the media from the press conference. So I wanted to make sure that Tappe was aware that I knew there'd probably be a response, and there'd be questions asked both sides.”