MACK HANSEN HAS hit out at the officiating in the URC, outlining his belief that Connacht unfairly fall on the wrong side of decisions too often.

The Connacht winger was put forward for post-match media following the province’s 20-12 loss to Leinster in Dublin this evening. Connacht fell 17-0 behind at Aviva Stadium before a strong second half rally came up short.

The visitors conceded nine penalties in the first half alone, and the game ended with Leinster conceding a total of 14 penalties to Connacht’s 13. The hosts also saw two players yellow carded – Lee Barron and Jimmy O’Brien – while Connacht lost Shane Jennings to the sin bin in the first half.

Yet Hansen was more irked by potential cards that were not shown as Connacht slipped 14-0 behind in the opening 40.

Chris Busby was the match referee at Aviva Stadium, while Peter Martin and Stuart Gaffikin were the assistants and Mark Patton was the television match official. 

Hansen started the press conference by outlining his frustrations with the Connacht performance, before focusing on some of the refereeing decisions, and extending that point to suggest it is an ongoing trend.

“Silly penalties and a couple of lapses in concentration sort of cost us a bit, I felt like also towards the end we were actually being allowed to play which was nice,” he said.

“To be honest, it felt like we were getting reffed out of the game for the first 40 minutes, pretty much. Then, we were able to do our thing. We were able to show the exciting rugby that we play.

We’re not a team for excuses, but that’s what I feel. I feel like the first bit we were getting pressured from what seemed like 16 men against us instead of 15 to be honest to you.”

“I guess I brought that up because I feel like that happens to us every week to be honest with you and, like, you’re saying there’s a lot of pressure on us – if you go back two years ago to when we lost the semi-final, I think we lost our first five games in a row.

“Like, as far as it goes, Connacht can win any game we’re in and we know that. While next week is a big one for us, we’re not worried about the season. We know we’ve got the players, we’ve got the coaching staff. We know what we’re doing. I feel like it’s finally starting to click into gear for us.”

Connacht boss Pete Wilkins was asked if he agreed with Hansen, and as he considered his response a clearly frustrated Hansen used the opportunity to jump back in and elaborate on his own point.

The 26-year-old explained that his feelings around some of the refereeing are echoed throughout the Connacht squad and have become an ongoing point of frustration.

Using tonight’s game as an example, he highlighted two incidents – a tackle from Connacht out-half Josh Ioane on Gus McCarthy which was subject to a lengthy review with no card, and a potential high shot from Jordie Barrett on Bundee Aki which was not reviewed.

“Can I say something real quick about the situation? Like, I feel like we get this every week. We never get any calls, ever. I’ve been feeling this for years now. Like, you can’t possibly tell me yourselves sitting there, like checking the Gus McCarthy one, how much? How much did they check that, 10, 11 times? 

“Bundee gets a direct hit to the head, it’s quite obvious, no call, doesn’t care. It’s like we get that every time, so you can hear the frustration in my voice ‘cos it’s starting to get to the point where honestly, it’s bullshit, and it’s starting to get really frustrating for us because people will say we are an inconsistent team but Jesus Christ, when you are getting some of the calls we’re getting like, of course, you are going to be. 

I’m not making excuses by any means but when you just get it week after week, I feel it’s got to be spoken about because it’s just getting to the point where it’s starting to really piss us off because we just feel we’re getting played out of games and we never ever get any calls.”

Hansen then returned to the Barrett tackle on Aki before referencing the incident that saw Ioane forced off for a HIA which ended his game after 31 minutes. Ioane was caught high by Charlie Tector after carrying into contact in the Leinster half.  

“He [referee Chris Busby] didn’t even look back at it and then Josh goes off with a direct hit to the head again and I was talking to the touchie and he goes, ‘oh, when you tackle you lead with the head’ – That doesn’t make any sense, that’s a penalty regardless.

“He’s actually said he’s hit him in the head with his head but because he was bent over it was fine or something like that, when he’s smacked him in the back of the head with his head and no call at all, not even a look back. We get that every time so…

He’ll [Wilkins] be in a tough situation if he said it. It just needs to be said. It’s really fucking starting to get to us a team.”

Wilkins added that Connacht will follow up through the usual channels as they would after any game.

“We all appreciate Mack’s honesty,” Wilkins said.

“It’s a tough one regarding referees’ performances. More often than not you are talking about TMO performances, who you never really get to meet in person. 

“If you feed back to the referees your dissatisfaction, they either agree with you on some of your feedback, which doesn’t make you feel any better because then you know that you were right, or they disagree with you which doesn’t make you feel any better because you can’t believe that you are not seeing eye to eye on it. 

“All we can control is that we keep feeding it back and after that we see how we go.

“For us, particularly in defeat we put our energy into what we can control and what we can do better and you just hope that everyone else involved in the game is doing similar.”