Connacht boss weighs in on Mack Hansen outburst and reveals the ...

Connacht head coach Pete Wilkins has defended Mack Hansen after the wing slammed the officiating during their United Rugby Championship defeat to Leinster.

The Galway-based outfit succumbed 20-12 to their fellow Irish province at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, but the Ireland speedster was left frustrated by what he felt was inconsistent officiating.

Hansen had a particular gripe over the incident involving Bundee Aki and Jordie Barrett, which saw the All Blacks star avoid punishment for a clearout on the Ireland centre.

Meanwhile, the officials deliberated when looking at Josh Ioane’s tackle on Gus McCarthy, which resulted in a penalty for the hosts.

Wilkins backed Hansen for giving his ‘honest’ view of Saturday’s clash, but did not openly criticise the referee and the TMO himself.

“I think every coaching room feels that they are hard done by, especially when they lose,” he told reporters.

“That’s why we have that process there with the URC referees in order to send feedback, we send clips and we send comments.

“The referee responds and Tappa Henning, the refereeing boss of the URC responds so I don’t think we’re any different to anyone else in that sense.

“Where Mack was coming from the other evening was how that feels as a player on the field in terms of momentum flow of decision or absence of decisions at times.

“So he spoke honestly about what it feels like when you are in that arena.

“For me, all I can do is go through the channels which are available to me which is to provide that feedback which we’re in the process of doing from the weekend.”

Mack Hansen hits out at match officials in extraordinary X-rated rant after Jordie Barrett gets ‘very, very lucky’

Wilkins discussed the protocol involved and insisted that it was not about giving feedback on one individual.

“Yeah the TMO is part of that,” he said.

“Often, when it’s Mack’s comments or anybody else’s comments, it’s easy to focus on the man in the middle, the referee.

“At the end of the day, we get the benefit in the coach’s box of hearing the two-way communications between assistant referees and the main ref and the TMO and the ref and what is coming back.

“We’re hearing the information that is coming in, and often scrum calls or absence of scrum calls are coming from touch judges, or offside calls are coming from touch judges.

“You mention that Bundee clean-out. There are conversations going on between the TMO and the ref. In some of those cases for us the other night, they were saying there was nothing to intervene on and the TMO has checked it in the background.

“So they work as a team and as such our feedback is delivered to them as a team as well.”

Wilkins also insisted that it is not about singling out Leinster players or going after the Dubliners in general, with the Connacht boss claiming that Hansen’s anger was purely about what he saw as inconsistent officiating.

“There are always conversations you can have with the citing officer. For us, the key thing, even Mack’s comments the other night, nobody is trying to get a Leinster player in trouble or get them sent off or have them in a situation where they are missing games.

“We have a good relationship with Leinster as a club and some of our players are very close to them, they play in the same Irish team as them. So it’s not about getting Leinster players in trouble.

“Mack’s comments were more about looking for inconsistency in reactions to moments in the game. That’s where his frustration came from. There are always conversations after the event. But his frustrations were borne of a feeling of inconsistency.”

READ MORE: WATCH: The Jordie Barrett incident which left Ireland star fuming and led to claims of Leinster ‘bias’