Stephen Ferris feels it was "really refreshing" to see a player being as candid as Mack Hansen was on Saturday night after Connacht's defeat to Leinster in the BKT United Rugby Championship.
Ireland international Hansen's outspoken comments about the way he feels some Connacht's games have been officiated dominated the sports headlines for the remainder of the weekend as the 26-year-old let loose verbally in an extraordinary post-match press conference whilst sitting next to his head coach Pete Wilkins.
While Ferris acknowledged the use of a couple of expletives may have over-stepped the mark, the former Ulster and Ireland back row was otherwise stirred by Hansen's willingness to speak so forthrightly about his views rather than keeping his counsel.
"I think it was on everyone's (social media) timelines for a couple of days after it and I was reading Bernard Jackman, what he said about it. He didn't think it was the right sort of look but at the same time he said he totally agreed with the honesty and thought the honesty was great," he said.
"I think if that would have come from Pete Wilkins, it wouldn't have come across in any way the same as it did from Mack Hansen.
"As a former player, you sit in the changing room after some games and you go, 'Oh my goodness, that refereeing was terrible tonight' or 'why was he doing this or why was he doing that'?
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"All the players think it, of course they do and I'm sure all the coaches think it at times. But it's really refreshing for a player to come out and absolutely go to town on the referee.
"I think his choice of language could have been a little bit better, of course it could. But I think it showed a little bit of emotion as well in his voice.
"He was obviously bitterly disappointed about the result but him and his team-mates feel over the last while that they're not getting the rub of the green and that they maybe deserve a little bit more from the referees.
"It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks now to see if they do get a few more decisions their way."
While refereeing decisions may be in the spotlight in that game, Ferris was damning about the officiating from Friday's other inter-provincial clash between Ulster and Munster.
"I thought it was a disgrace. Actually, it was embarrassing and those are pretty harsh words but it really was," he said.
"Munster gave away five penalties in the opening eight minutes of the game. Ulster were absolutely pounding their line and multiple penalties for the same offences - offside at the ruck, on their own line - and this was just a common theme the whole way throughout the game and Ulster certainly deserved a yellow card in the opening quarter of the game.
"Then Ulster had a massive purple patch between 55 and 70 minutes where it was just ground-and-pound down at the Munster line and Ben Whitehouse just could not put his hand in his pocket to give another yellow card. It was just absolutely baffling.
"I totally agree with the red card on Tom O'Toole, obviously Alex Nankivell suffered a serious injury out of the back of it, (so) I totally agree with that.
"But not just the penalties, just the way the game went, good referees seem to get the flow of the game going, they seem to be able to communicate with players and there was once (when) the two sets of players went to ground and the referee just blew the whistle straight away and called for a scrum.
"And it's just like, no, we're trying to get some momentum in the game and before you knew it, a second and a half later, the ball was presented. It just felt like the referee was doing his best to make it stop-start and make it really not enjoyable for the players."
