An Independent Disciplinary Panel’s decision to hand Connacht and Ireland winger Mack Hansen a three-week ban has received huge backlash online.
Hansen’s ban includes three weeks which has been suspended in the event that he steps out of line again before the end of the season.
Hansen’s additional punishments
He was also required to issue an apology to referee Chris Busby and his officiating team for his comments in the post-match presser after the defeat to Leinster in the United Rugby Championship (URC).
Hansen will also need to undertake a course decided by Tappe Henning (URC Head of Match Officials) and Dudley Phillips (IRFU Head of Referees) which will be related to officiating while Connacht must run an education session with their players on how to conduct themselves in post-match media sessions.
His punishment has been met with strong disdain, mostly in Ireland, with many feeling as though he has been harshly dealt with and that the disciplinary panel are suppressing players’ ability to express themselves and their opinions.
Irish Independent writer Cian Tracey was left perplexed by the length of the ban when comparing it to the recent suspensions for Ulster prop Tom O’Toole and La Rochelle hooker Tolu Latu, with both players found guilty of illegal ruck entries.
“Mack Hansen receives the same three game ban as Tolu Latu got yesterday for a dangerous clear-out. Tom O’Toole got a six-game ban for an arguably less serious but similar offence. Different jurisdictions but hard to get your head around rugby’s disciplinary process at times,” Tracey wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
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Further backlash
Meanwhile, Andrew McKenna bemoaned the fact that Hansen has been punished after “speaking openly and from the heart.”
“So Mack Hansen gets 3 matches (reduced from 6). He has to do a ref’s course, AND a media course. Honestly!!! What the media (and fans) should want is people speaking openly and from the heart, not media trained waffle. He’d been warned previously which didn’t help,” his post read.
He was not alone in thinking that as Irish Independent Correspondent Rúaidhrí O’Connor had a similar view.
He believes that a clear mandate was issued to players in the URC with the suspension.
“The message to players today is clear: Back in your box, your opinions & personality are not welcome. Continue to toe the line with banality, because if you dare to step out of line we’ll come down on you like a tonne of bricks,” O’Connor wrote.
Meanwhile, former England and Harlequins prop Joe Marler simply responded to the news by saying that it was ‘Utter b*llocks’, with many fans agreeing as one added: “Absolutely ridiculous to see Mack Hansen pick up a 3-game suspension for speaking the truth. Bulls–t.”
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Ex-Ireland full-back Rob Kearney has also weighed in on the suspension speaking to the Irish Sun where he said that the “three-match ban is not a slap on the wrist”.
“You cannot completely put a muzzle on players and just not allow them to voice their opinions because they are a key part of the game,” he said.
Adding: “Without players there is no game. But I do think players have a responsibility to protect the game and to ensure that there is a game in five, ten, 15 years time.”
“We cannot get to a point where every post match interview is a player giving out about the officials because if that is the case we won’t have officials and if we don’t have officials.
“The quality of referees and officiating in world rugby needs to get better.
“But if we start discouraging people from wanting to become referees then that issue is only going to get bigger. There are arguments for and against both sides.”
READ MORE: Mack Hansen learns his suspension fate after X-rated referee rant as Ireland winger apologises after he ‘fell far short of the standards’
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Publish date : 2025-01-09 16:20:44
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