Inside Track: Hansen’s hat-trick heroics were equalled the following day

Matt Hansen can say he was robbed the weekend before last. The full-back had performed heroics in Ireland’s big Test win over Australia at The Aviva, scoring three tries.

That should have been enough to get the Connacht player into the headlines and on to the 6 o’clock News. But while he got some recognition, it was nothing compared to what was afforded to Troy Parrott for his hat-trick the following day, many miles away in Budapest.

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Neither was creating a record – many hat-tricks have been scored before in rugby and soccer at the highest level, and they are commonplace in other sports as well.

But coming at a time when both of their teams were easing their way out of an indifferent run of form, these two huge importance had attached to them.

Hansen, a stop-gap at full-back playing against the country of his birth, claimed all of his scores in the opening half, and after that did his duty wearing the 15 jersey. He finds himself in a cohort, which includes Ireland’s greatest-ever rugby player.

Capped 133 times for his country and lining out eight times for the British & Irish Lions, Brian O’Driscoll was at the height of his career when he crossed the line three times in the 2000 Six Nations defeat of France. Twenty-five years on, it’s a feat that’s often recorded in print and on screen.

Hansen got his place against Australia because regular full-back Hugo Keenan and next in line, Jamie Osborne, were both on the injured list. By coincidence, Troy Parrott got to wear the other green jersey for the same reason.

Had Evan Ferguson been fit, he’d have been in against Portugal, and probably again in the Hungary game. That Parrott took his chance in spectacular fashion is beyond question.

His hat-trick was a thing of joy, celebrated more joyously than anywhere else in Dublin’s inner-city, where he was born and reared. He was emulating Don Givens, the first Irish International to record the feat.

European Championship points were at stake when Ireland played Russia, or the USSR as they were known at the time, at Lansdowne Road in 1976. Centre-forward Givens was in lethal form, scoring all three goals in a famous win.

He’d do even better late on in the series, claiming all four goals in the defeat of Turkey; but by then Ireland’s interest in qualifying for the finals was over, a 2-1 defeat to Russia in a game played in Kyiv, above all places, putting an end to all hopes.

Of all the hat-tricks scored by an English player, the one that’s most celebrated fell to Geoff Hurst. The West Ham forward couldn’t have done it on a bigger stage.

The 1966 World Cup final was played at Wembley, not all that far from where Hurst was born. West Germany were out against the Three Lions, and while his commentary is best remembered for his “They think it’s all over. It is now,” Kenneth Wolstenholme told us pre-match, that there were quite a few George Crosses in the crowd. Just in case we’d forgotten.

Anyway, Hurst copped three of the goals in England’s 4-2 win, and with Martin Peters claiming the other and Bobby Moore being presented with the Jules Rimet, it was quite a day for the Hammers.

Hurst was 25 when he won his World Cup medal. When Pelé won the first of his three, in 1958, he was just 17. By then, however, he had twelve months of International football behind him.

His Brazil side were near flawless in the Sweden finals, the line-up for which also included all four UK countries, former Dundalk FAI Cup-winner, Peter McParland, lining out for Northern Ireland.

Their semi-final win over France had Pele putting his name on his side’s three goals, and he was twice on the mark in the 5-2 win over the host country in the final.

Not that it’s an easy task, Gaelic football and hurling has probably more goal hat-tricks than most other sports.

Shane O’Donnell hit three for Clare hurlers in the 2013 All-Ireland final replay defeat of Cork, and before that, in the 1978 football final, Eoin Liston got the same in Kerry’s win over Dublin.

And could there be any goal-scoring stories to be told without a mention of David Clifford? He bagged four in a Kerry league defeat of Galway, the same as Cillian O’Connor came in with in Mayo’s 2020 All-Ireland semi-final rout of Tipperary.

Your writer was of the opinion that at one time in soccer, three goals for the same player could only be regarded as a hat-trick if they were scored consecutively. However, research has shown there is no evidence to support this theory.

What was found was the definition of the ‘perfect’ soccer hat-trick – a goal scored with the left foot, the right foot and a header.