He's got 3 weeks ban for that (coincidentally finishing just before the start of the 6NHansen wrote:"To be honest, it felt like we were getting reffed out of the game for the first 40 minutes, pretty much," said the Ireland international.
"Then, we were able to do our thing. We were able to show the exciting rugby that we play.
"We're not a team for excuses, but that's what I feel. I feel like the first bit we were getting pressured from what seemed like 16 men against us instead of 15, to be honest."
Hansen's head coach Pete Wilkins was asked if he agreed with his player's assertion before the 26-year-old interjected to add: "Can I say something real quick about the situation?
"Like, I feel like we get this every week. We never get any calls, ever. I've been feeling this for years now."
"You can't possibly tell me yourselves sitting there, like checking the Gus McCarthy one, how much? How much did they check that, 10, 11 times?" added Hansen.
"Bundee gets a direct hit to the head, it's quite obvious, no call, doesn't care.
"It's like we get that every time... and it's starting to get really frustrating for us because people will say we are an inconsistent team but when you are getting some of the calls we're getting, of course, you are going to be.
"I'm not making excuses by any means but, when you just get it week after week, I feel it's got to be spoken about... we just feel we're getting played out of games and we never ever get any calls."
) and there's been a lot of commentary from people saying it's "driving characters out of the game" and "enforcing identikit boring post-match comments" with Joe Marler specifically describing the sanction as "bollocks" on twitter. "Players should be allowed to express opinions," is the battle cry going up on social media.However, in the meantime, the referee under discussion has decided that this is the straw that broke the camel's back and has made the decision to retire at 38, despite being on the verge of being an international.
Gods only know why someone would want to be a referee in the first place - you get nothing but grief and every decision is always wrong. Even the lauded ones like Barnes and Owens are subjected to online hate, derision, and ludicrous accusations of bias, and have decided to call it quits. I even see it down at my level - I play National Counties 3 Tribute Dorset and Wilts Central for a 3rds team and I am constantly reminding people that we play 3rd team rugby so we are going to get a 3rd team level referee and that they will make mistakes just as we do, and that no ref has ever reacted to being told he's wrong by changing his mind, but still, every godsdamned week, I'm mid-match having to tell teammates to shut up and, more often than not, I'm apologising to the ref after an outburst that he has tactically chosen to be deaf to. I'm amazed anyone wants to do it in the first place and, as they say - "No ref, no game".
I'm aware that I started playing in the 90s when things were different and had "no-one but the captain speaks to the ref" inculcated into me by my father, so I am old-fashioned about these things, but we've got to start doing better on talking about and on protecting referees or we'll have none left (or worse, the only ones left will all be shit!).
Puja
