'Mack would do things that were way above an 18-year-old's level'

The 42

2 days ago

THERE'S AN AWARD that goes to the best back in Daramalan College each season.
They call it the Mack Hansen Medal.
There's also a bigger, older award given to the 'best and fairest' player on the Canberra school's first team every year. The 2016 recipient was Mackenzie Hansen.
That was the year Hansen's heart was broken. Daramalan got to the grand final of the Canberra competition against rivals St Edmund's College, the school Finlay Bealham came through.
Daramalan had scored a late try and were leading with just 45 seconds left. Hansen dropped off a 22m restart and 'Eddies' scored with the clock in the red.
'Mack came back to school and he was sitting in the quad, just crying,' says Daramalan College rugby coordinator Ben McGee, who coached Hansen in school and at the Gungahlin Eagles club.
'He couldn't believe what had happened. 'Cause footy means everything to him.'
At that stage, Hansen was beginning to think he was cursed. He'd already lost a few junior finals. He never won anything with the Brumbies either.
'Mate, he hadn't won a chook raffle here,' says McGee.
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It took moving to Ireland and winning the Grand Slam in 2023 for Hansen to break his streak. And now, the good times keep rolling for the Canberra man. He's back home this week and will play against his former side, the Brumbies, for the Lions tomorrow.
Rugby has always been it for Hansen. He's not remembered as the greatest student in the world. While other kids in 'Dara' were worrying about end-of-year scores, Hansen was studying rugby games.
Hansen comes from good rugby stock. His grandfather, Kevin Hansen, played league for Australia. His father, Craig Hansen, played union for the Manly Marlins in Sydney. His younger brother, Jake Hansen, plays in the second row and back row for Gungahlin. His mother, Diana Hansen née O'Shea, is the reason he qualified for Ireland.
Mack developed a reputation as a promising player when he was young and that only grew as he came through Daramalan, as well as representing the ACT region alongside fellow future pros like the Lonergan brothers, Ryan and Lachlan, who play for the Brumbies tomorrow.
Hansen was mainly an out-half in school. His plan was always to be a number 10. He had strong passing and kicking skills, as well as being a real student of the game.
'Everything else in his life was probably, you know, boring, but rugby was always his main thing,' says McGee. 'He loved it. He would say and do things that were way above an 18-year-old's level. He read the game so well and was a good leader.'
His love of the game also meant Hansen had an unflappable approach on the pitch.
'I think he loves it so much that he doesn't see it as a job,' says McGee. 'It's just something that he loves to do. If you love doing it and it's fun, it doesn't become stressful.'
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Everyone knew he was going to be a professional rugby player, but no one knew where the game would take him.
Hansen came out of school and into the Gungahlin Eagles, which has a strong connection to Daramalan. He also started working as an apprentice electrician. Hansen has previously admitted that he was probably the worst electrician in Canberra.
'I would extend that further than Canberra,' says McGee with a smile.
But Hansen was continuing to impress on the rugby pitch with the Eagles. By now playing on the wing and at fullback, Hansen was viewed as a future Brumbies player and a key stepping stone was his involvement in the now-defunct National Rugby Championship, a level below Super Rugby.
Hansen was called into the Canberra Vikings squad and that's where the highly-experienced Nick Scrivener, a former Wallabies assistant and Edinburgh coach, got his hands on him.
'The thing that struck me about him was how competitive he was,' says Scrivener. 'He reminded me a lot of a young Stephen Larkham in terms of being a really good footballer, but really determined. He had a lot of personal pride.
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'If someone pushed him, he'd push them back. If someone got the better of him, he'd really get annoyed. He almost had a little bit of shit in him, you know, he wouldn't take a backward step.'
Hansen had all the skills too and he was an excellent athlete.
He might not have the complete out-and-out pace of some other elite wings, but he has always been highly elusive.
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'He's long, you know, 6ft 2ins. He's quite long and lean, so he's one of those guys that sort of lopes along, but he's a very balanced runner, so he can change direction and swerve and move laterally really well at high speed' says Scrivener.
'He might not be in the top 5% of sprinters, but his elusiveness was a real weapon.'
The other thing was that Hansen had a streak of creativity. Scrivener felt that his impulsiveness was a big strength. Players around him got excited. They knew Hansen would make something happen or take a risk.
Scrivener believes this is one reason Hansen has become so valued by Andy Farrell.
'Going into a system with Ireland that is highly structured, it's been interesting to see how we fit into that systemic way of sort of playing footy, but still being able to add some stuff outside of that.
'In a system like that, it's perfect because some of that flair and off-the-cuff stuff complements the way they play.'
Another thing Farrell likes about Hansen is his personality. Scrivener says the young Canberra native always had a bit of mischief in him, while McGee remembers Hansen's jokes getting him into trouble with some of the Daramalan teachers.
Hansen used to slag McGee about a tattoo on his left arm.
'He carved me up about having a crap tattoo,' says McGee. 'I eventually got it covered with my family crest. I always tell the boys now, 'Think before you ink.'
'But yeah, a 17-year-old slags you off about your tattoo and then ironically comes out years later and is covered in random tattoos. I don't want to say I inspired him to get all of his ink…'
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Hansen's performances for the Vikings earned him a deal with the Brumbies but he struggled to nail down a starting spot in Super Rugby over the next three seasons.
That meant he was often back playing for the Gungahlin Eagles. The great Matt Giteau returned to Canberra during Covid and the pair of them combined in a lethal backline.
'When Mack wasn't playing for the Brumbies, he played as many games as he could with the club,' says McGee, who is a Gungahlin stalwart.
'He was elite. He was playing fullback because Gits came and played 10.'
Even with that star power, the Eagles came up short in a grand final. It was a familiar feeling for Hansen.
Things weren't quite happening for Hansen at the Brumbies, but he was being tracked by another Canberra man, Andy Friend.
Friend was the head coach of Connacht and having watched him for two seasons, he noticed that Hansen was becoming more effective when he got a chance with the Brumbies.
'The biggest thing for me was that every time he touched the footy, he beat a defender,' says Friend.
'You could see that he was growing into a lovely player.'
Friend got onto Hansen through his agent and they had an initial chat.
Hansen and Matt Giteau playing for the Gungahlin Eagles. Gungahlin Eagles. Gungahlin Eagles.
And this is where Hansen's local bar, the RUC, comes into the story.
The RUC is close to Hansen's family home. He was known to frequent the place.
'I can neither confirm nor deny if I ever saw Mack Hansen at the RUC,' says McGee with a laugh.
However, Friend didn't know that when he first called Hansen.
Three days later, Friend got a call from his son, Jackson.
At that time, Jackson was working behind the bar in the RUC and he wanted to know why his dad had been speaking to Hansen.
'I asked Jacko if Mack was a regular,' says Friend. 'Jacko said, 'Yeah, he comes here all the time.''
Friend is good mates with the owner of The RUC, Jeremy Wilcox, and called him up to ask what Hansen was like.
'Jeremy says, 'Mate, he's a good footballer,' and I said I could see that but wanted to know about the bloke,' says Friend.
'And he said, 'Oh mate, he's loose.' So I said, 'Is he loose like you?' because Jeremy is loose as well, but a good loose.'
Jeremy told Friend that Hansen was the kind of fella who'd have a few drinks, dance on a table, and take his shirt off, but never get into a fight or cause any trouble.
'And I went, 'I can handle that,'' says Friend.
A few months later, Hansen joined Connacht and the rest is history.
There is huge pride in Canberra at what Hansen has achieved since leaving his hometown.
Hansen regularly sends back videos to Daramalan and Gungahlin teams wishing them luck ahead of big games, as well as special messages to the winners of the award named after him. He hasn't forgotten his roots.
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The Ireland wing actually lives with another Daramalan old boy, Mitch Ward, who is a physio with Connacht. Back in Canberra, McGee is part of a group who get up at 2am to watch Ireland play. Their group chat buzzes away in the wee hours.
He explains that Hansen is an inspiration to the young rugby players in Daramalan not only because he made it, but also because of the different route he has taken.
'I would argue that he's more of a trendsetter than a lot of the people that came before him,' says McGee.
'I think there was this stigma for a long time that if you didn't make it in Australia, you were just never going to make it. For us in our little community, he was the first to really roll the dice and make such a big move.'
Rumour has it that Hansen will bring the Lions squad to the RUC after their game against the Brumbies, so it only seemed right to check the place out.
It's a spacious bar that serves food, has more big screens than you'd ever need, and the 'pokies' that seem to be in many pubs and sports clubs around Australia.
In the name of research and in Hansen's spirit, it was necessary to test out their newly installed Guinness tap. The bar staff were delighted with the positive review. By Australian standards, the RUC are working wonders with their new Guinness set-up.
Over in the far corner above the pool tables, there's a marker of how far Hansen has come.
Alongside the Brumbies, Wallabies, and Canberra Raiders shirts, Mack Hansen's green Ireland jersey is impossible to miss.
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