Mack Hansen says he feels as if he is living in \u201can alternate universe\u201d on the eve of his first start for the British & Irish Lions in his native Australia. The winger, qualified for Ireland through his Cork-born mother, was a youngster in the crowd when the Lions last toured Australia 12 years ago and cannot wait to line up against one of his old housemates this weekend.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old represented his homeland at under-20 level but says relocating to Europe was \u201cthe best decision I ever made\u201d. Nevertheless he has been pinching himself ever since flying in as a member of the 2025 Lions squad. \u201cIt feels like I\u2019m properly living the dream,\u201d said Hansen before Saturday morning\u2019s fixture against Western Force, for whom his former Brumbies colleague and good friend Bayley Kuenzle now plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the last Lions tour I was at the game in Canberra and the Brumbies beat them. My dad, my brother and me were sitting behind the goalposts watching it. It was mad. It seems like an alternate universe. I remember the buzz around Australia and seeing these players you didn\u2019t really get to see. It was amazing. I always loved the Lions and I didn\u2019t know it would be something that I\u2019d get to do. But I\u2019m here and I\u2019m enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That formative experience also taught him just how desperate the local Super Rugby sides are to take down the Lions. \u201cYou don\u2019t expect anyone to actually do it but I talked to guys [at the Brumbies] after that and they\u2019d been pumped up for the game for weeks. They saw it as the be-all and end-all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hansen, who has 28 Test caps, has absolutely no regrets about declaring for Ireland, where his allegiance is so complete he has the face of Andy Farrell, the head coach on sabbatical to take charge of the Lions, tattooed on his leg. \u201cI haven\u2019t really looked back at it and wondered: \u2018What if?\u2019 I\u2019ve just been going forward with Ireland. I\u2019ve got a new life over there, new friends, new family. For me, it\u2019s definitely the best decision I\u2019ve ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also says his Aussie mates will now be expected to support the Lions \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m expecting them to be wearing red; if not they won\u2019t be getting tickets\u201d \u2013 but accepts the touring team need a victory after their 28-24 defeat by Argentina<\/a> in Dublin last Friday. \u201cIf you get the opportunity to play in the red jersey then, yeah, you should be winning games. We\u2019re [drawn from] four of the best teams in the world, so the expectation is to win regardless of who you\u2019re playing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a few excuses we could have had but we\u2019ve thrown them out the door. At the end of the day [we have] some of the best players in the world. You should be winning every time. So every time it\u2019s a loss it just isn\u2019t good enough. We know we\u2019ll get our heads absolutely chewed off if it happens again so the plan is to win from here on out. The only thing that can beat us is us really.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Hansen\u2019s experience of Ireland\u2019s tactical approach, currently in the process of being transplanted to the Lions, could further enhance his prospects of making the Lions Test side, with the Force game offering an ideal chance to press his claims ahead of, among others, England\u2019s Tommy Freeman \u201cWe\u2019ve all got different strengths. The other guys would be a bit quicker and more physical than me. That\u2019s not my game. For me, my main strength is my work off the ball. That\u2019s my focus a lot of the time: keep working hard and try and get into the game wherever I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mack Hansen says he feels as if he is living in \u201can alternate universe\u201d on the eve of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-220843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114760015164617373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}