Mack Hansen: Ireland's irreverent but talented wing cuts a dash

There are not many players who would have a tattoo of their national coach but the Australia-born flyer did just that post the Six Nations Grand Slam - Andy Farrell now adorns part of his upper thigh.

Hansen - who qualifies for Ireland by virtue of his Irish mother Diana - is far from a joker on the pitch despite his lightheartedness off it.

His try against Tonga in the Rugby World Cup pool match last weekend showed his class when he turned former New Zealand star Charles Piuatu inside out, and South Africa will keep a keen eye on him this Saturday.

However, it is his irreverent humour and being himself that brings a much-needed light touch to the Ireland camp - he threw his shorts to a startled spectator at the end of the 82-8 humbling of Romania a fortnight ago.

"I'm not the first person to take their shorts off after a game," he said prior to the Tonga match.

"I doubt I'll be the last. I've been told to keep them on this week. I'll try my hardest, I'll see how I'm feeling."

He kept them on.

'Naughty kids'

"He's been a breath of fresh air," said Ireland's hard-bitten flanker Peter O'Mahony.

"An incredible character, a good person.

"He's seamlessly fitted into our squad like everyone else has. He's been great craic (likes a good time) and you need characters like that."

That approach has served him well as Andy Friend, the Australian who was then director of rugby at Irish province Connacht, signed him as he was "loose" - an Australian term for wild.

Typically with Hansen, the signing was unusual as it came as a result of the manager of a pub in Canberra where the Brumbies player drank and Friend's son worked.

The manager was a friend of Friend and gave Hansen a rip-roaring reference.

"I rang Jim and said, 'I believe Mack Hansen is a client of yours'. He says, 'Yeah, geez, he can play footy, Friendy'," Friend told TheRugbyPod earlier this year.

"I said, 'I have seen that, but I want to know about him as a bloke' and he said, 'He is a bit loose, mate'.

"I said, 'Is he loose like you?' because my mate Jim is pretty loose.

"He goes, 'Yeah, he’s just like me'. I said, 'Well, that's a good loose, I can handle that'."

Hansen arrived for the 2021/22 campaign and made such an immediate impact that he won his first cap in the 2022 Six Nations. He scored his first try in his second Test, against France, with a brilliant chase and catch from an Irish kick-off.

Since then he has been an integral part of Farrell's side - along with his fellow livewire Antipodean wing New Zealand-born James Lowe.

Not even Lowe, though, has gone as far as having Farrell's name tattooed on themselves.

Hansen, who went to the same school as firebrand tennis player Nick Kyrgios, felt honour-bound as he had a bet with captain Johnny Sexton about the Irish winning the Six Nations.

"Andy's a big man!" Hansen told the Daily Mail prior to having the tattoo.

"I'm nervous because I don't want to upset him!

"He's a great coach. You'd run through walls for him. When it's time to have a bit of craic, he's not on you the whole time."

Hansen, who loves music and has named his dog Lemmy after the late lead singer of heavy metal band Motorhead, is probably relieved his career has blossomed as his other jobs did not work out as planned.

First, he was an electrician - "I wasn't the worst. I just didn't do anything to do with wires," he told the Daily Mail - and then after-school care.

"For some reason all the naughty kids seemed to gravitate towards me," he said.

A magnetic character indeed but also one to be counted on.

"I'm a man of my word!" he said.