From bruising college forwards to Lions centres, Robbie Henshaw has always enjoyed a challenge.
The young man from Roscommon has been a shining light in a difficult start to the Six Nations campaign. He has gone up against the likes of Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Danty and given not one inch. It is simply not in his nature.
Four short years ago Henshaw was captaining Marist College to a rare Connacht Senior Cup title. That summer he had to leave his own graduation early to make a try-scoring senior Connacht debut, against Harlequins, at the Stoop.
Less than a year later the Athlone man made his Ireland debut in Houston, before he was old enough to order a drink in Texas. Last season he collected a first Six Nations title and played at a World Cup – a heady mix of glory and failure that makes Henshaw – at 22 – one of Joe Schmidt’s most trusted selections.
Mick Loftus, head coach at Marist, can assure his Ireland counterpart that Henshaw has been comfortable with responsibility and expectation since he was a 16-year-old transition year student.
While the rest of us were learning to drive and running the school tuck shop, Henshaw was intimidating college students and inspiring older team-mates.
Despite having taken up rugby with Buccaneers at the age of eight Henshaw, enjoying all the sporting opportunities on offer at the Athlone secondary school, did not stand out during his junior years.
By the time he came into Loftus’ senior sphere at the age of 16 he was ready to give rugby his focus, a focus that would rewrite the college’s rugby story.
It started with a statement of intent and it would end with a first Connacht senior cup title in 35 years.
“Every year we would play the Athlone IT freshers. I remember when he was still a TY, Robbie would be out in the centre position and he would be studying the scrum and you could see he was eyeing up the biggest forward they have,” recalls Loftus.
“Then you knew, in the first 15 minutes he is going to put in a hit on that man. He was a 16 year old coming in against freshers but he would have no fear.”
There were moments in that first year at senior, like a trip to Calasanctius, when he and his cousin Conor Fitzgibbon inspired Marist to an unexpected victory but it was in 2011 when Henshaw began to make his mark outside his native province.
The splash made my Henshaw in his own pool had sent ripples all the way to Dublin, which would eventually see Henshaw become Marist’s first schools international. It all came naturally, according to Loftus.
“He is very very self motivated, in a quite unassuming way. He learned from the move up to senior, he learned every season, but the call-up for Ireland schools was a big thing.
“He had his first session up in Wanderers and he was rooming with a guy from Blackrock. It was such a a big thing as no one from Athlone had done it before.
“Robbie wasn’t intimidated and he shone on his first day. We wouldn’t have been known on the Leinster circuit at all but after that first session they were all thinking, ‘who is this guy? He’s really good’.”
The upward progression just continued – his first cap against Scotland in Braidholm RFC Glasgow before Ireland went on to win the Fira European Championship in Tarbes, France.
But Marist were still waiting to make their own breakthrough and, with Henshaw as captain, they targeted the 2012 Connacht Senior Cup. A conditioning room was installed and pitches secured, as they received a place in a prestigious pre-season tournament in Gloucester.
It was in the English Midlands when Loftus thought they may be getting ahead of themselves.
“We got there and straight away I thought, ‘Jesus, is this a step too far for us’. There was St Mary’s from Dublin, one of the famed Irish rugby academies and all these top schools from across Europe.
“All the fundraising to buy the tracksuits so we could look the part, the travel, renting the apartments. Now we’re here and I realise we have to play these guys: ‘Have we bitten off more than we can chew?’
“Robbie got all the lads together and he told them to go have a look around, get used to the place but that tomorrow we were going to go out and play these guys and beat them. That was that.”
They topped their pool, drawing with St Mary’s and beating their English and Welsh opponents.
From there the momentum was irresistible. Henshaw would lift the senior cup as captain – leaving behind his last amateur team, a group good enough to retain their title without the future Ireland centre.
He had made his mark and he leaves it still.
“Coming in as a Transition Year he didn’t have to talk, he made his point with man of the match defensive displays in matches we should have lost. By his second year at senior people were looking to him in the dressing room,” says Loftus.
“Under Robbie’s leadership all of that 32 were closely bonded as a squad. When Bernard Jackman came down to present the medals Robbie said that the greatest thing was winning senior cup, but to win it with friends made it better.”
When Henshaw announced himself on the international stage against Australia in 2014 he revealed how Brian O’Driscoll had been advising him over the phone and helping to mould the future of the Irish midfield.
In his own small way Henshaw is already continuing the tradition. On Monday he gave a talk to the first years at Marist, while he put his World Cup disappointments behind him in November by taking a session with the senior backline, just a day after returning from England.
“He put the school on the map but he still comes back to mentor the lads. Those links could break but they haven’t. He has a great rapport with the students,” says Loftus.
“But when people comment on that I remind them it is only four years since he left. It’s no time at all.”
No time at all, but a lifetime when you move at the speed of Henshaw.
His future may lie away from Connacht but his talent took root on the banks of the Shannon.
