DECLARATION of FAITH
It’s no surprise that Farrell has backed peerless Hansen to be fit
MACK HANSEN’S calf may sound like the name of an indie band gigging around the pubs of Galway, but it’s also rivalled Joe Schmidt as the dominant topic in the build-up to Saturday’s quarter-final.
And the strong suspicion is that it’s not done as a subject yet.
Andy Farrell used his words carefully when he was asked about Hansen’s selection in the team announced at lunch-time yesterday.
He was asked if the Connacht winger was fully fit. ‘He is, yeah,’ came the reply, but what came next feels significant.
‘He obviously had a few things to do at the beginning of the week, he’s coming good and everyone is very confident that he’s going to be fine for the game, no problems.’
‘Coming good’ is not the preferred status of a star winger four days before the biggest game of his career, and the contention that ‘everyone is very confident’ that Hansen will be fit to play, is something rather less than cast-iron certainty.
It will be no great surprise if there is an update on Ireland’s selection sometime in the next 48 hours.
Nor is it a shock to see him named to start, or to hear Farrell picking his way around the question of Hansen’s health with some care.
The Ireland camp have no interest in laying out the full extent of their fitness situation, or their options, to the All Blacks’ brains trust, especially when they named their team 24 hours before New Zealand will.
Their match-day selection is announced this evening, and Ireland’s was brought forward a day to yesterday in order to give the players today off, according to reports.
Perhaps if he had another 24 hours, Farrell would have had a clearer picture of Hansen’s injury to share. Perhaps. But this Ireland set-up, like its predecessors going back at least two decades, shares information extremely carefully, and often operates on the basis that unless a specific question is asked, then information will not be forthcoming.
Hence the news yesterday that Jimmy O’Brien injured a shoulder in the final warm-up match against Samoa, and wasn’t fit to feature in the first two pool games. Fit now, he could be the focus of much attention in the minutes before kick-off, because if Hansen doesn’t make it, O’Brien is certain to start.
Farrell praised him yesterday for being ‘unbelievably smart, nice and cool and calm and collected, unbelievably fit and he’s unbelievably good at fitting in in numerous different positions, so with the little bit of disruption that we’ve had at the start of the week it just makes more sense for us to go with that option’.
That rich praise sounded like a man making a virtue of necessity. For all O’Brien’s talent, and it’s extensive, he is also the only specialist cover for the back-three still fit. With Keith Earls and Robbie Henshaw injured, the alternatives to O’Brien are Jack Crowley, already covering out-half, and Stuart McCloskey.
Injury has, almost imperceptibly taken a toll on Farrell’s options.
While Hansen’s calf dominated the headlines, Earls and Henshaw continued to struggle with hamstring problems, their difficulties belying the upbeat line pushed by the Irish camp earlier in the week.
James Ryan is also gone for this week, and while the coach has big hopes of them being available should Ireland make the last four, it’s wise not to invest too much in that bullishness yet.
Hansen, were he to be ruled out, would be a big loss. Brian O’Driscoll was foremost in praising his display against the Scots in defence, but he also offers Ireland much in attack, especially in the air, where he is without peer as an attacking winger.
The New Zealand back three pose a lightning threat, and with pace that Ireland struggle to
‘Hansen’s loss would be highly significant’
match, astute defending is vital. Hansen provides that, so it’s no wonder Farrell has named him and is backing him to be fit. His loss would be highly significant. Given how well Iain Henderson played against Scotland, his presence alongside Tadhg Beirne in the absence of Ryan is no cause for concern. Henderson is in the form of his career at Test level, but the requirement is steep for Saturday: he must stitch together a third consecutive big performance at the highest level, against a New Zealand pack whose infirmity is being oversold in places of late. The selection of Joe McCarthy instead of Ryan Baird as second-row cover sees Farrell plump for power over the more varied strengths of Ryan Baird, but with Jack Conan returned to fitness, he can afford to select a second-row specialist like McCarthy on the bench.
It’s a team unchanged from the one that hammered Scotland, and if it stays that way, then Ireland look well set for the All Blacks’ challenge.
Fatigue hasn’t been a problem yet, if one is willing to blame the late lapses in defence against the Scots on the game being won and the team being turned upside down by substitutions.
Farrell took a big gamble in deciding to pick his best side throughout the tournament, and it’s paid off handsomely so far.
With New Zealand rotating heavily in the three Tests they’ve ambled through since losing to France, the conditioning of the Irish players will be tested in Paris.
It’s why there is no room for a player who is not fully fit, and the risk is that starting Hansen only to see him pull up in the first half has a disruptive effect that could have been avoided.
The value of experience, and especially lessons learned in adversity, has become a central tenet of Farrell’s messaging around this tournament.
All of the setbacks and challenges have been endured, and the wisdom gleaned from them is now to be used against the game’s great aristocrats.
The sense of faded grandeur around the All Blacks has started to lessen, as they talk themselves up, and heap as much pressure on Ireland as they can.
‘It’s the big boy stuff,’ said Farrell of the knockouts. ‘It’s the business end of the competition and when you get to those points, then you draw, hopefully, on good experiences that you’ve had, and the experiences that we’ve put ourselves under in the last three or four years were for moments like this.
‘We’ve got a very experienced group that’s been through a lot, and learning to deal with weeks like last week and this week is something that we’ve got pretty good at so we draw on those experiences.’
Doing so with a fully equipped squad is fanciful. But doing so with a team of fit players is essential.
And so the ballad of Mack Hansen’s calf may have another verse in it.