It would have been naive to think Mack Hansen would escape without a suspension for his comments on the refereeing of his side's defeat to Leinster just before Christmas.
In the end, the Connacht winger has been slapped with a three-game ban, with a further three games suspended. That extra ban will be triggered if he’s a naughty boy between now and the end of the season.
The reaction to both his comments and the subsequent disciplinary action have been mixed.
For some, the three-game ban is conveniently timed to end right before Ireland’s Six Nations campaign starts, while others believe the delivery of anything greater than a slap on the wrist is just the latest example of the game shooting itself in the foot.
Rugby needs more personalities, and Hansen is definitely one of them, but the idea that he should be given a free pass because he’s a 'character’ who is just speaking for the people is overly simplistic and obtuse. Panto-villain Rassie Erasmus has learned that the hard way - twice.
The overall message Hansen tried to communicate was largely correct: Connacht – and other smaller teams – don’t get the 50/50 calls that Leinster and the other big boys get, but the way he conveyed that message was inflammatory and went beyond the acceptable level of questioning decisions.
When you suggest a referee was a "16th man" for the opposition, or describe a decision as "bull***t", a suspension will be inevitable, even for those who might agree his comments are factually correct and/or entertaining.
What didn't help the winger’s cause was the size of the game and the timing.
On Christmas week the sports news cycle becomes slower than normal, and in the absence of any other major news, Hansen’s comments hung around longer than the leftover turkey and ham. By the time we learned his fate on Thursday morning, it had been 19 days since the game in question.
It’s worth pointing out that the player issued a full apology for the comments which he said "were ill-advised, and fell far short of the standards I expect of myself, and what the sport expects of its players".
For those that believe Hansen got off lightly by avoiding a Six Nations absence, his three-game ban does match the suspension handed down to Johnny Sexton following his Champions Cup final altercation with Jaco Peyper in May 2023.
Other recent examples haven’t been dealt with so consistently.
In April 2024, Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt served a one-game ban (with a further five suspended) for his conduct towards referee Mike Adamson following a controversial defeat to Ulster. Cardiff were also given a suspended fine of just under €6,000 in comparison to Connacht’s €10,000.
It’s unclear whether the Welsh Rugby Union were given any punishment for the match report they carried from that game, in which they said Cardiff were "robbed" of a win, after the "TMO joined forces with the referee" to disallow Theo Cabango’s late try which would have won the game.
Similarly, Bulls head coach Jake White (above) appeared to avoid any disciplinary action against him following the URC final defeat to Glasgow in June.
Speaking after the game, White took aim at referee Andrea Piardi, who he claimed "let the away team win" at Loftus Versfeld.
"It’s twice in a row now the referee has let the away side win," he said, with no public record of any action taken against him.
"In fact, three times – last year Munster won in Cape Town, Glasgow won in Munster, we won in Leinster and this referee let the away team win so maybe next year I’ll ask when we play away that I want him to try ref us," he added.
Luckily for White, the quick jump into the summer international window meant his comments drifted into the wind
Rugby has always prided itself on how its players and coaches respect the match officials, often times to a nauseating degree, but the sport is slowly losing that moral high ground.
It’s been reported by the42 that the referee at the centre of Hansen’s comments, Chris Busby (above), is to step away from professional refereeing in the coming months, and while this incident isn't believed to be the specific reason for him doing so, it should be a wake-up call for those running the game.
In the last few years a slew of the most experienced referees in the game have retired. Peyper and Jerome Garces have both brought their experience to the coaches’ box with South Africa and France respectively, Wayne Barnes and Mathieu Raynal have both retired, while Tom Foley also quit the game, citing the "torrent of criticism and abuse" he received after being TMO for the Rugby World Cup final in 2023.
The Catch 22 of the situation is that World Rugby are trying to bed a generation of new referees in at the highest level, at a time when the scrutiny over their decisions is greater than ever.
If three-game bans are to become the norm for what is now an all too regular autopsy of refereeing decisions, then the game’s players and coaches will probably get the message, but without that consistency it's likely to get worse.
The only real objectionable element of Hansen's punishment lies in the supplementary information.
In addition to the ban and having to issue a full apology to the referee – something Hansen says he would have done regardless of the outcome of the hearing – the player must undertake a refereeing course and present what he has learned to his team-mates.
Additionally, Connacht must run an "education session" with their players on how to conduct themselves in post-match interviews, a frankly patronising box-ticking exercise that benefits nobody.
As punishments go, it's up there with the sanction handed down to England winger Anthony Watson in 2021, who was forced to deliver a presentation to his team-mates on the use of social media in addition to his one-game ban for criticisng a refereeing decision on Twitter.
Even at the time, Hansen would have known he was crossing a line with what he said at the Aviva last month, and the apology he delivered yesterday reflected that. The three-game ban is what will deter him from doing it again in the future rather than a round of media training.
The inclusion of these tasks only leaves the impression that rugby is more concerned with their image of respecting the ref, than they are about actually respecting them.
