Ireland and Connacht winger Mack Hansen has provided guaranteed entertainment to the game of rugby by means of his exciting style of play, unselfishness with ball in hand and above all his heart on sleeve personality.
Unfortunately, the latter of these three popular traits has not only landed Hansen in hot water but appears to be the final straw for Ulster-born referee Chris Busby.
Hansen was handed a six-week ban for his post-game rant following Connaught’s defeat to Leinster on the 21st of December. Luckily for him and Ireland, three of those weeks have been suspended, meaning the winger will be available to start in Ireland’s opening game in the Six Nations on February 1st against England.
Connacht themselves are paying the price for the outburst with a suspended fine €10,000 and have been instructed to run an education session with their players about how to conduct themselves in post-match media sessions and interactions with the media.
Following the hearing and outcome Hansen released a statement through Connacht saying that he had “Let his emotions get the better of him” and his comments “were ill-advised” along with a full apology to both Busby, Connacht and the URC.
“Moving forward, I will channel all my energy and passion into representing my province and country to the best of my ability – both on and off the field.”
And there it should have ended.
However, approximately three hours later referee Busby announced his shock retirement from pro rugby with Sunday’s Investec Champions Cup match between Bath and Clermont expected to be his last time officiating a professional game.
Busby joined the IRFU’s refereeing panel in 2021 before going on to become an assistant referee in the 2023 Rugby World Cup and went further still by officiating his biggest international game last year in the Autumn Nation’s series when he officiated Wales against South Africa.
No stranger to the game, Busby played inside centre for Ballyclare RFC in his younger days so for his officiating career to finish like this is not what anyone would want to see, especially Hansen. Whilst the winger’s comments were not aimed directly at Busby and featured references to past occasions in which he felt Connacht had been unfairly refereed, the timing of the rant very much indicated that he was not happy with the Ulster-born referee’s performance in Dublin.
Busby will be a big loss to the game.
Rugby is and always has been a very hard game to officiate perfectly because it is not a perfect game. With collapsing scrums, manic breakdowns and the tiniest of knock on’s happening all over the place at lightning speed before the next phase sends the ball flying down the other end of the field, it’s no wonder incidents get missed in real time. Referees are just as human as the players they are refereeing. Hopefully, this incident and resulting consequences will be seen less in the future of the game.
Written by Chris Collyer
