The Australia-born winger is in from the start on Saturday against the Force, a team containing three of his old mates from the ACT Brumbies, including his old house-mate Bayley Kuenzle, who starts on the bench for the hosts in Perth.
Much is made of Hansen’s relaxed attitude but he reveals another side of himself. Does he get nervous? Will he be fretful before running out at Optus Stadium on Saturday?
“Definitely, yeah, yeah,” he says. “You know, come pre-game, I can barely eat anything. You’ve got the butterflies, you feel sick, you definitely have all that stuff, but you know, it’s the best job in the world. I’d rather have those feelings than sitting around not having them.
“Anyone that says they don’t get nervous is lying, to be honest. That’s just what comes with playing at those levels because there’s a lot at stake. It means something.”
Hansen, 27, is a curious sort. For a wing, he’s not a prolific try-scorer. He’s only once registered double-figures for a season as an elite player. He’s not tall, he’s not all that quick by modern standards, he’s not as powerful as many as you see these days. He’s far from a physical specimen.
But the sum of his parts is an outstanding package. His intelligence is the key. That’s one of the things that his Ireland and Lions coach, Andy Farrell, loves about him. His game awareness, his decision-making, his work-rate, his appreciation of space, his habit of doing the right thing at the right time.
“I guess the other guys [Duhan van der Merwe, Tommy Freeman and James Lowe] would be a bit quicker and more physical than me. That’s just not my game. I try to help out where I can, whether that’s getting my hands on the ball, being a player at the back, those sort of things.
“My main strength is my work off the ball, so that’s my focus a lot of the time. Keep working and try to get into the game wherever I can.” That’s a modest appraisal. Hansen’s ability to read a game is exceptional.
He’s interesting on the likely mindset of the Force’s players on Saturday. “When you’re coming up against a big team such as us, those guys will definitely be able to get up for that,” he says.
“They’ve only got one game and then they’re on holidays. You can rev yourself up. No, we’re not expecting anything easy. We’re not playing the Force this week with them thinking, ‘All right, boys, let’s go out here and lose by 40’
“They’re coming out thinking we can cause an upset.”
Just as the Brumbies did in June 2013. Tevita Kuridrani scored the only try and the Canberra boys won 14-12.
“I was at the Brumbies game and the Brumbies beat the Lions,” recalls Hansen, who was born and raised in Canberra and qualifies for Ireland and the Lions through his Irish mother.
“Things do happen. I remember that tour vividly – I remember the buzz around Australia, seeing these players that you never really get to see. It was just amazing, it was just cool to me. Now it’s here and I’m doing it and it feels like I’m properly living a dream.”
The memory of that Brumbies victory was a glorious one once upon a time but now he’s using it as a salutary tale, an experience to keep him on his toes. Fear of failure can be a suffocating thing, but used wisely, it can be a powerful force for good.
“I was with my dad and my brother [at the Brumbies match]. We were sitting behind the goalposts,” he says. “It was a mad thing, because you don’t expect anyone to actually do it. I’ve talked to guys about that afterwards, and they were juiced. They’d been pumped up for that game for weeks.”
Hansen believes the Force will be no different. They’ve had a lousy season but this is a chance to redeem themselves, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn over the Lions.
The fire the underdogs will bring must be doused by captain Dan Sheehan’s impressive-looking team – or else that Hansen line about heads being chewed off will resurface.
