Mack Hansen predicts that Connacht can sting Stormers on the double - which is exactly what his horrific-looking forehead injury felt like last Friday night.
Hansen later posted a horror pic of the deep cut on Instagram with the tag 'model career on hold' and the image had viewers recoiling.
The Ireland international went off for a HIA only to return to play a starring role in the westerner's URC quarter-final win at Ulster that sets up the last four clash with reigning champs Stormers in Cape Town on Sunday.
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"Yeah, I really didn't know what was going on," Hansen said, having just collided with team-mate John Porch. "It wasn't that I was concussed or anything but it was just a really, really deep sting.
"It just stung heaps - like I got stung by a couple of bees. I don't really know if that's the best way to describe it.
"Then I felt blood coming down and it wasn't until after...they took my headgear off and the three doctors were like, 'Oh, Jesus' and I was like, 'that can't be great'.
"They asked did I want to take a photo and I said yeah, and when they took it I was like, 'Oh, show us the photo' and they were like, 'we'll show you after the game'.
"I understand why now because it was a deep sting, a deep cut. John Porch has a hard head, he's come off unscathed...he's already ugly enough!
"People were asking why I posted it and to be fair, I don't really know why. I thought it was kind of cool for people to see. I know when I see things like that, I'm like, 'Oh, Jesus!'.
"Our doc is very good with his hands, so I got stitched up nice and quick, I was able to fit in that and the HIA."
After playing a big role in Ireland's Grand Slam triumph Hansen, 25, insists that Connacht can go all the way in the URC for the first time since 2016.
He was 19 and back in Australia when that historic triumph was achieved.
"I remember hearing about it because people were showing what an accumulator would have cost for Connacht and Leicester City to win the Premier League at the time, it was like put on €10 and win a couple of hundred thousand," he recalled.
"So it was definitely a big talking point around the world - I didn't know too much about Connacht at the time but yeah, you knew it was a bit of a fairytale story."
The key to success, he believes, is Connacht now having the ability to play the kind of intense game that saw them over the line in Belfast or the attacking, free-flowing stuff that they are renowned for.
"It's semi-finals time and anything can happen," Hansen declared. "We showed that last week and we're going over there to do a job, we're not just going to lay down and take it from them.
"I'd say they're probably feeling pretty comfortable - they'd have been thinking they were going to Ulster which is perfect, they can keep thinking that.
"It's possible to play with that intensity two, three, four, five, as many games in a row as we need, for sure.
"There's so much passion and fight behind this team, we know that we're underdogs every week. Even when we started winning so many games people were just waiting for us to fall, waiting for us to lose so we just kept going.
"We just gave it everything we had for the full 80 against Ulster. On the flip side of that our attack was bang average, I think it was the first we haven't scored a try in God knows how long, but it gives us plenty to work on which is exciting coming into this Stormers week."
*A 29-man Connacht squad has left for Cape Town this morning.
The management team can report a clean bill of health from the weekend, with the travelling squad including all 23 players who featured in Belfast.
Also included are Connacht natives Eoin de Buitléar, Cathal Forde, Darragh Murray and Colm Reilly, as well as props Peter Dooley and Dominic Robertson-McCoy.
Forwards (17)
Jack Aungier
Finlay Bealham
Denis Buckley
Jarrad Butler
Eoin de Buitlear
Peter Dooley
Oisín Dowling
Jordan Duggan
Dave Heffernan
Shamus Hurley-Langton
Josh Murphy
Darragh Murray
Niall Murray
Conor Oliver
Cian Prendergast
Dominic Robertson-McCoy
Dylan Tierney-Martin
Backs (12)
Bundee Aki
Caolin Blade
Jack Carty
Tom Daly
Tom Farrell
Cathal Forde
Mack Hansen
Kieran Marmion
John Porch
Tiernan O’Halloran
Byron Ralston
Colm Reilly
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