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Mack Hansen poised for long-awaited return from injury
By Josh Raisey
Ireland wing Mack Hansen is ready to make his return from injury on Saturday after over eight months on the sidelines.
The 26-year-old has been named among the replacements for Connacht's pre-season fixture with United Rugby Championship winners Glasgow Warriors in Scotstoun.
The 21-cap Ireland international has been out of action since New Year's Day after dislocating his shoulder against Munster.
While out, he has seen Ireland win the Guinness Six Nations and battle to a series draw with the world champions South Africa.
Connacht get their URC season underway with a trip to Thomond Park to take on Munster on September 21.
Whether Hansen will be ready to start in the URC season-opener is yet to be seen, but he will very likely feature. That will give the Australian-born wing enough time to stake a claim to make Andy Farrell's Ireland squad for the Autumn Nations Series, where they face the All Blacks, Argentina, Fiji and Australia.
Connacht XV
15. Piers O’Conor
14. Shayne Bolton
13. David Hawkshaw
12. Cathal Forde
11. Shane Jennings
10. Josh Ioane
9. Matthew Devine
1. Denis Buckley
2. Dylan Tierney-Martin
3. Jack Aungier
4. Joe Joyce (C)
5. Darragh Murray
6. David O’Connor
7. Conor Oliver
8. Paul Boyle
Replacements: Adam McBurney, Jordan Duggan, Sam Illo, Niall Murray, Oisín Dowling, Oisín McCormack, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Ben Murphy, Jack Carty, John Porch, Finn Treacy, Mack Hansen.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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