Ronan O’Gara: Mack Hansen comments ‘a great thing’ as Ireland legend blames ‘faceless people’ for making ‘life hell’ for referees

La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara speaking to a match official and Connacht wing Mack Hansen.
Ronan O’Gara has defended Mack Hansen after the Ireland wing was suspended for three games following his outburst last month.
The 26-year-old was banned following a foul-mouthed tirade over the officiating in Connacht’s United Rugby Championship defeat to Leinster.
Hansen suggested that they were playing against ’16 men’ and vented his frustration over what he perceived as a lack of consistency from the match officials.
Leinster-Connacht referee retires
It has since been reported that Chris Busby, who refereed that match, will retire, leading to a debate over whether the actions of players such as the Ireland star create a toxic narrative around officials.
Hansen has received plenty of support for his honesty, including from O’Gara, and the La Rochelle head coach believes that it is the “faceless people”, presumably on social media, who make “life hell for referees”.
“I hope this doesn’t sound like a contradiction, but I completely get Mack Hansen because as a player I felt like that. When you lose that, you lose the soul of the game because he’s speaking from the heart – he’s hurt and he’s disappointed,” he told Off The Ball.
“You then have the flip side of it where we have made a confusion between the people who aren’t players and a genuine athlete.
“Mind you, the faceless people have become very powerful in the world, where they’ve taken as much space as the genuine people who want to promote the game and make it better.
“A serious professional who once in five years has not had the capacity to bottle his thoughts, I think it’s a great thing the fact that he did that.
“But when you have poisonous, toxic people that make life hell for referees, the suffering that Chris Busby and his family have had to endure will become relevant in the next week.”
O’Gara’s run-in with the law
O’Gara’s comments may appear hypocritical to onlookers, given his regular tirades against officialdom.
The Ireland legend has been banned on several occasions for speaking out on certain refereeing performances and decisions, but the 47-year-old defended his stance on Hansen on Busby.
He added: “It’s a horror show. Get the decision-makers in a room and make rugby more simple, they’re not setting up referees to succeed.
“[People will say when] I’m coming on Off The Ball, ‘well this is a guy who has abused referees and now he’s trying to look after the referees’. That isn’t my point at all.
“Where we are at the minute, referees are in a very, very difficult position and something needs to change.”