Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

https://www.unitedrugby.com/latest/disciplinary/mack-hansen-suspended-for-six-weeks-with-three-weeks-suspended

Full details here

If he wants to stand by his earlier words I wouldn't hold it against him. It could potentially result in a new ban though so need to be very careful there. Guaranteed any apology would be an apology "in name only" and realistically would cost nothing

The standard of reffing isn't much better in France. Potentially pushing him to NFL is what they are doing here I think

HaNson banned the same length as Latu, which is nonsense

So he was going to apologise to the ref anyway?

Those courses are a bit of a harsh punishment for simply telling the truth

He doesn't miss any Ireland games which shows how corrupt these hearing are. Laughable decision

The pr and media training is a lovely "watch yourself, peasants" punishment from the URC. Fair enough with the apology but ban is excessive and the pr training is a load of nonsense.

Yes but there needs to be an element of Common sense with Hansen. 3 games seems excessively harsh. He had a fair point about 1 incident but he ranted about others which he was wrong about so a punishment yes, but this seems wrong to me.

1 match ban and send him on a ref course or something and maybe even sit him in with the TMO for a game or two so he understands the process and sees what happens between ref and TMO.

Leinster have had players not in match day squads in the coaches box lately to get a different view of the game and see what happens there.

The appropriate response to this would be to withdraw from all in-person media for the remainder of the season.

If the powers that be want to exert that much control over Club interactions with the media, that what results is the same old boring platitudes, with no real insight or honesty, then it would be better to have no interactions at all, just a few press releases with squad news and team selection.

The real irony is that Busby got away with worse

Correct, but according to an article above he always intended to apologise to the ref regardless of the disciplinary outcome so requiring it seems pointless from that point of view

Only give yes, no and not sure as the answers in future at press conferences maybe?

I'm aware.

But its not as if the fans don't see the shortcomings on the field.

If the powers that be prefer to obfuscate than address the actual issue, then they deserve to be challenged, and ignored where possible.

Press conferences might be obligatory, but if one or more Clubs start taking a stand over unfairness by not turning up anyway, they'll be forced to act on the substantive issue, not the optics.

Now that's a good idea, but the clowns would probably find a way to fine us/deduct points if we were to do it.

I am surprised. I thought 1-2 match ban only.

Yes he was wrong to say what he said as refs are critical to the game and deserve respect. It was not wise but the reality was that the ref was reacting to the crowd and selective - that must be really frustrating for a player - noting he should have said nada and used the correct channels.

Some of the comments calling this harsh are bizzare. You simply cannot make comments like that - simple as that. It's hardly unprecedented.

If ROG or Rassie Erasmus or Joe Marler or Michael Cheika made those comments, we'd be calling them absolutely deranged.

New report out on The42 indicating that Busby is going to retire as well. This stuff has an effect on the referee's and their personal lives; and too often comments like Hansen's encourage people online to join in on the pile on (or rather make them feel less guilty about doing so).

The amount of comments I've seen going "but what about the other head contact - give Busby a course on that" or something to those lines is horrendous. We cannot be having role-models like Hansen giving people the idea that making these kind of comments is okay.