British and Irish Lions: Andy Farrell singles out a Mack Hansen moment in the victory over the Western Force
British and Irish Lions winger Mack Hansen and head coach Andy Farrell.
Andy Farrell has singled out a moment from winger Mack Hansen in the victory over the Western Force as the ‘type of spirit’ he wants to see from his British and Irish Lions players.
Hansen endured a tough first half in Perth on Saturday with the winger struggling to impose himself and was rather fortunate not to be penalised for a high tackle on Ben Donaldson moments before Nic White scored the Western Force’s only try of the game.
While it wasn’t Hansen’s finest first-half performance, he grew into the match and sparked a wonderful attack from turnover ball, sending James Lowe through a gap which eventually led to a try for Tomos Williams.
From that point on, the winger played a far more influential role in the victory as the Lions ran in eight tries with captain Dan Sheehan grabbing the opening try inside the first two minutes with Williams (2), Elliot Daly (2), Garry Ringrose, Joe McCarthy and Alex Mitchell all crossing the line for the tourists.
Farrell reacts to Lions’ victory
Speaking immediately after the match, head coach Farrell was pleased to get the victory after taking learnings from the defeat to Argentina in Dublin a week ago.
“In some respects [we were better], a new-ish team and plenty of learnings from last week and the same again from this week,” he told Sky Sports.
“Mainly our discipline in the first half and when we gained our composure in the second half we were nice and calm.
“Our defence improved out of sight and we were able to force a few errors and scored some tries off the back of it.”
He was also pleased with how clinical his charges were once they created the opportunities and how strong of a challenge the Western Force were.
“Let’s be honest, the Force took it to us, certainly in the first 25 minutes, they played a tough high-percentage game,” he continued.
“They kept the ball really well and we kept them in good field positions through our ill-discipline and they were physical at the breakdown, so it was a real good test for us in the first half. But I’m glad in how we composed ourselves after half time and kept that.”
Hansen’s moment
While Hansen finished the match with two try assists, it was a moment on defence that caught Farrell’s eye. In the second half, Josh van der Flier’s pass in the Force 22 was picked off by Donaldson who raced up his own 10-metre line before putting boot to ball.
Hansen sped back to beat the Force full-back to the ball and managed to offload to Huw Jones. He quickly got back into position and thundered a kick up field and put the pressure on the Force backfield which resulted in a knock-on and scrum just outside the 22.
Phenomenal effort from Mack Hansen to save a try and then win a scrum here.#Lions2025 #FORvLIO pic.twitter.com/pYBYCHbOp6
— EK Rugby Analysis (@ek_rugby) June 28, 2025
“The play of the day, I mean, there were some fantastic tries, weren’t there? But the play of the day if you want to look what a Lion should do for his teammates was when Mack Hansen went up and down the field, end-to-end, never gave up, and fought for his teammate,” the head coach said.
“That’s the type of spirit that we want throughout the team. So a nice example there.”
The Lions are back in action on Wednesday as they head to Brisbane to tackle the Queensland Reds before taking on the NSW Waratahs in Sydney that Saturday.
