‘Hansen shines brightest as Ireland heed Farrell’s call’

After last week’s underwhelming win over Japan, Andy Farrell told his Ireland squad to “get over themselves” and start playing some proper rugby.

They listened.

Ireland faded late in the dispiriting loss to the All Blacks in Chicago and took 60 minutes to get going against Japan.

Against Australia, however, they flew out of the blocks, with Mack Hansen shining brightest in a 46-19 win that was Ireland’s best performance of the year.

In his first international start at full-back, Hansen scored a hat-trick of tries, contested brilliantly for high balls and was generally exceptional against the country of his birth.

“Look, I’ve had a pretty bang average run with injuries really,” Hansen told TNT Sports.

“I missed being in this team, I know there’s a lot of chat about me not necessarily being born here and I didn’t grow up here, but I love this team and this feels like home.

“Any time I get to play for Ireland it’s a privilege, if you don’t put in a performance you might not get that privilege again.

After 28 caps on the wing, Hansen was entrusted at full-back for the first time with Hugo Keenan and Jamie Osborne both injured.

For him, it was a case of picking up where he left off in the summer. The 28-year-old was in great form on the British and Irish Lions tour before injury wrecked his dream of making the Test team.

And having returned for Connacht last month, he picked up a foot problem that ruled him out of the All Blacks and Japan games.

After revealing his team on Thursday, Farrell said Hansen had “the bit between his teeth” and they were clearly not empty words as the former Brumbies player gave his head coach an intriguing selection headache in the near future.

“Well my first thoughts were, ‘You better play well in those two different coloured boots!’,” said Farrell, referring to Hansen’s decision to wear one black and one white boot.

“I actually thought that was how it should have been but apparently Mack just did that himself anyway. So he’s drawn attention to himself before he’s even started.

“I said to him before the game, ‘Good players don’t need excuses, they can get on with it and just be themselves, you can get the man of the match if you want,’ and he went, ‘Yeah, I agree.’

Hansen’s efforts also earned praise from Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt, who said he was the “standout Australian player” on the night.

“I thought he was super, his experience showed to the fore,” Schmidt, who coached Ireland from 2013 to 2019, said.

“Unfortunately, Mack was probably the standout Australian player on the field. He’s got a great skillset and he’s such a good competitor.”

Pressed on what makes Hansen a strong fit at full-back, Farrell added: “Popping up in the middle of the field is something that he does from the wing anyway, but I suppose he’s more in position for that more often.

“His high ball stuff was brilliant, wasn’t it? I thought we didn’t get bored of doing the right thing and that was putting the ball back on them to get the field position.

Outside of Hansen, there were myriad positives for Farrell. Sam Prendergast was excellent on his return to the 10 jersey, the scrum and line-out functioned smoothly and Paddy McCarthy did not look out of place in his first start in the front row.

But perhaps most pleasing for Farrell was Ireland bookending the game with two impressive spells.

Hansen’s first two tries came in the opening 11 minutes while Ryan Baird and Robbie Henshaw scored in the closing exchanges after Billy Pollard had crossed for the Wallabies to ensure the Irish finished on a high.

“I thought we really let ourselves go and attacked the game straight from the word go,” said Farrell.

“How we handled lots of bits throughout the game, especially them coming back just before half-time and regathering ourselves and giving a performance like we did in the second half, I thought as far as field position and being across most of our game in that second half was really pleasing.”

The might of South Africa are next up for Ireland, in what could be considered an unofficial decider to last year’s drawn two-Test series on Springbok soil.