Mack Hansen outburst adds spice to URC derby dishes

If the URC decision-makers thought that switching up the Christmas schedule so that not having a St Stephen's or New Year's Day game would make the holiday period easier to navigate then Mack Hansen gave them another idea.

The interpro derbies, even with the intrusion of IRFU player-management policies, have always served up enough talking points to garner attention.

But, after a seemingly non-stop year and a half of rugby, the spread of matches over the festive period seemed more player and fan-friendly with full-on preparation for games on 26 December and 1 January off the cards.

M, has lent another dimension to two remaining clashes.

After losing 20-12 to Leinster, and feeling mightily aggrieved, Connacht must lift themselves for a tie against an Ulster side reeling from the pain of conceding a late winner to Munster.

"It is an incredibly important game," Connacht boss Pete Wilkins said of the Galway meeting against an Ulster side who are only below the Westerners on points difference in the table.

"It is about finding a balance for us. That nagging frustration and 'what if' that we will carry out of this game and bring back along the motorway.

"It is important that we don’t let go of that and that, while we might have ran out of minutes [against Leinster], that we pick up where we left off and unload some of that frustration on our next opponents.

"That said, we also can’t spend half of the next week processing, we have to get over it pretty quickly because we train Monday and Tuesday, couple of days for Christmas and then in for a captain’s run.

"As I said to the players there, remember that frustration. We certainly don’t lack for fire in the belly in those contests with Ulster and nor do they in return. We can’t feel sorry