{"id":287387,"date":"2025-11-16T02:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T02:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/287387\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T02:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T02:27:08","slug":"mack-was-probably-the-standout-australian-player-on-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/287387\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mack was probably the standout Australian player on the field’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joe Schmidt concedes that unfortunately for the Wallabies, \u201cthe standout Australian player\u201d from Saturday\u2019s Quilter Nations Series 46-19 defeat to Ireland<\/a> wasn\u2019t wearing gold, with Mack Hansen<\/a> stealing the show in a green jersey.<\/p>\n

Canberra-born Hansen represented Australia<\/a> U20s in 2018 before debuting for the ACT Brumbies<\/a> across multiple seasons. The outside back later penned a deal with Irish club side Connacht, which led to international honours.<\/p>\n

After touring Australia with the British & Irish Lions<\/a> earlier this year, Hansen faced his countrymen again, named to start at fullback for Ireland. The 27-year-old opened the scoring in the fifth minute before repeating those heroics with an identical effort.<\/p>\n

Hansen scored two incredibly similar tries by the 10th minute, which saw the home side take a 14-0 lead over the Wallabies. While the Australians hit back through John Eales<\/a> Medallist Len Ikitau<\/a>, Hansen\u2019s name was back up in lights soon after.<\/p>\n

Fly-half Sam Prendergast<\/a> delivered a cross-field kick over to winger Tommy O\u2019Brien<\/a>, but it was Hansen who ended up reaping the rewards, completing a first-half hat-trick with an effort in the 27th minute.<\/p>\n

Hansen was named the Player of the Match after carrying the ball eight times for 22 metres, scoring those three tries, and covering the backfield well as Schmidt noted post-game initially with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was super. His experience showed to the fore, I thought,\u201d Schmidt told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s probably a bit of a lack of experience in our back three. Maybe there\u2019s probably only 30-odd caps between the three of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMack, he knows the game well. He\u2019s got good support though. James Lowe<\/a> and young Tommy O\u2019Br is an excellent player as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately Mack was probably the standout Australian player on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s got a great skillset and he\u2019s such a great competitor. He got into the kick contest really well, covered the backfield well, and those are the aspects of a fullback that you need to have covered well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansen\u2019s third score saw Ireland regain control as they extended their advantage to 12 points, but the Wallabies made it a one-score game just before the break, with James O\u2019Connor<\/a> converting a Fraser McReight<\/a> try.<\/p>\n

Only five points separated the teams at the break but the Irish stormed home with 25 points in the second term. That was Ireland\u2019s highest-ever score against Australia, and the Wallabies\u2019 seventh defeat from nine Tests.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies shocked the British & Irish Lions in Sydney and the Springboks in Johannesburg four months ago, but they\u2019ve only managed to beat Los Pumas<\/a> and Japan\u2019s Brave Blossoms since.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a fresher, more complete team at the time [against the Springboks]. We don\u2019t have massive strength and depth yet. I think that\u2019s a little bit of a slow burn and it has built from the ground up,\u201d Schmidt explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there were 19 debutants last year in an effort to try and build a broader base of international players but the accumulation of experience through that broader group is still in its genesis really.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, we\u2019ve got to stay competitive at the top end. I know I\u2019ve mentioned it, before around having a short-term focus and a long-term vision. It\u2019s getting that balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we start to get toward the end, we\u2019re probably disappointed with some of the end games that we\u2019vebecauseecuase it was something we took real pride in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve won a few games at the death coming back and even the Ellis Park one being down early on in the game and coming back and winning it well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs things accumulate with players having travelled a lot, played a lot. We\u2019re just not as competitive in that last quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I think with 20 minutes go we\u2019re down 22-12. We\u2019re still right in that game. I think we had that five-metre lineout, we just couldn\u2019t quite get the execution and accuracy right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some good pressure from Ireland but at the same time our execution wasn\u2019t good enough\u2026 they really controlled the flow of the game and they controlled that space in behind and the aerial battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we\u2019re going to get more of that from France<\/a> next week. They tend to kick a lot. I think everyone kicks a lot now with the way the game is set up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Schmidt concedes that unfortunately for the Wallabies, \u201cthe standout Australian player\u201d from Saturday\u2019s Quilter Nations Series 46-19…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-287387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}