Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A CLASS PLAYER
Wing Hansen revelling in his best job since looking after kids in an Aussie kindergarten
MACK HANSEN has made Test rugby seem like child’s play since making his Ireland debut this month.
In fact, child’s play is something the Connacht star is a bit of an expert on having taken on a job minding kids while rehabbing an ankle injury while with the Brumbies.
Born in Canberra to a mother who hailed from Cork, the 23-year-old has already produced one of the moments of this year’s Six Nations with his first Ireland try.
But there was life before playing rugby on a serious level for Hansen, who admits he was Canberra’s worst electrician as he learned the trade.
Hansen had his foot in the door with Brumbies when he left school but it took another year for the hoped-for pro contract to materialise.
In the meantime, he became a spark.
“I was literally just terrible at it,” he declared. “They wouldn’t let me do any hard jobs at all, I was pretty much just nailing the line that we’d run the wires through.
“I didn’t actually do any electrical work at all in my time as an electrician.”
An injury put paid to that career and he took on a different job entirely.
“I did childcare for a bit when I ended up rupturing all the ligaments in my ankle and couldn’t really do my trade anymore,” Hansen explained.
“I ended up doing a job where I would just literally sit down. It was just kindergarten to year six, so that’s from about six to 12-year-olds in primary school in Canberra.
“It was good, I was going in for rehab with Brumbies and it was very easy to fit around rugby.
“It was just afternoons or real early mornings. I enjoyed it, I loved hanging out with kids, it was good fun – it was probably some of the easiest money I made.
“In hindsight, I didn’t have to do too much, just make sure none of them ran off anywhere.
“I didn’t have to clean any bums or anything like that!
“And I actually had long hair back then as well, the girls would braid my hair and I’d get paid about $35 an hour so it was perfect.”
Thankfully, rugby provided him with a full-time career.
He made progress with
the Brumbies but, in the end, he joined Connacht when Andy Friend was made aware by his son of a talented young winger who was struggling to get consistent starts.
Last summer, he left home for Galway and a whirlwind start to his new life with the province.
He was brought into the Ireland camp in November and is now reaping the rewards.
“It’s been mind-blowing,” said Hansen of his Six Nations experience so far.
He made his Ireland debut in the Six Nations opener against Wales and notched up a try assist within two minutes. Then he produced one of the moments of the championship so far when he caught Joey Carbery’s restart with Ireland 10-0 down to France and raced in for his first Test try.
Was the catch a result of an Aussie Rules upbringing?
“There’s no AFL in there, mate,” grinned Hansen. “I didn’t play AFL so I won’t give them any credit for the try.
“We hadn’t practised that. It was actually more on the spot. Andrew Conway and Joey realised that the French were really set up on the right side so they just called a cancel and decided to switch. So, yeah, it was a spur of the moment thing. “I thought I was going to get absolutely cleaned up by one of the Frenchmen, with my arms above my head, so as soon as I saw space in front of me…it just kind of happened and worked out that way.”