With Tadhg Furlong stepping up his bid to return for this Friday’s clash with a resurgent Argentina, led by former Leinster favourite Felipe Contepomi, Connacht winger Hansen has insisted their rivalry with New Zealand is still alive and his side can resuscitate their November campaign.
“It doesn’t affect our confidence at all,” declared Hansen, who admitted he had been worried about regaining his wing berth following a lengthy injury absence.
“You do look at it as a one-off in a way of going, we know that’s not us, but also you’ve got to review it and realise why things went wrong. It’s not like we’ve gone, ‘Oh, that’s not us, don’t worry about it, let’s move on to next week’. There’s a lot of hard chats, a lot of honest talks on why things went that way, which we’ve had, and it’s just making sure that doesn’t happen again now.”
Hansen was keen to talk up the Aviva Stadium atmosphere, contrary to the evidence of many attendees, and also claims there is similar substance to the view that a rivalry with New Zealand remains despite two successive losses.
“People forget we recently beat them twice in a row and the rivalry wasn’t dead then, was it? They’ve got the last two, but we have a good win rate over them. People are always very eager to jump on you when you’re down. It’s like in South Africa, nobody gave them a hope after the first Test. And what happens? They come back and win it. That’s the best thing about this group.
“The outside noise is outside noise and nobody knows what goes on in here. How hard we work and how resilient we are. People can chat away. The people who know us know, unfortunately, it was one of those weeks, but we’re ready to bounce back.”
Ireland are hopeful Furlong can play after the hamstring complaint that ruled him out last Friday, although Ulster prop Tom O’Toole will miss out after being concussed minutes after his second-half introduction.
If Furlong doesn’t make it and Finlay Bealham starts again at tighthead, Thomas Clarkson is likely to make his debut from the bench.
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source linkThe post ‘The outside noise is outside noise’ – Mack Hansen backs ‘resilient’ Ireland to bite back against Argentina first appeared on Rugby 247.
Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2024-11-12 02:59:11
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.