Stephen Ferris says Iain Henderson is a better player than him.
Henderson disagrees.
We’re not reffing this one.
Ulster’s former wrecking ball blindside gave the 23-year-old a huge dollop of praise, earlier this week, and called for him to get the No.6 jersey ahead of Peter O’Mahony.
Asked about the tyre-pumping, today, Henderson commented, ‘Ah, that’s just Stevie being modest. I’ve got a good few years to get to Stevie’s stage.
‘It was unfortunate that Stevie’s career was cut as short as it was but I’m sure he’d be here if he was still playing.’
Henderson actually gets his sixth Test start [and 20th appearance] in Ireland’s second row. Concerned that Ireland were not getting enough front-foot ball, Joe Schmidt axed Devin Toner for the Ulster man.
Henderson prefers to play in the back row but he was not knocking on Schmidt’s door with any grumbles.
He said, ‘If you had asked me would I rather play in the second row or not play at all in the opening game of the World Cup, I obviously would have said second row. I love playing rugby in general.
‘I played in both Wales games in the second row and I felt comfortable playing in those games.
‘Towards the end of last season at Ulster, I was playing six and again it’s two different squads, different personnel and it’s different for each team. I’ll leave it up to them and just concentrate on playing rugby.’
The versatile forward agrees that his time has come to step up.
‘Joe has backed me, put me in the starting squad, and that’s a massive confidence booster for me. I can only try to take my opportunity as I’ve tried to take my opportunities in the past. Hopefully that would be the grounding of me cementing a place in the starting team.’
Finally, Henderson addressed a rumour that has been doing the rounds in the Irish camp this week – that he is a butler to senior Ulster colleague Rory Best.
‘I think all the old men need their servicing people to do bits and pieces for them so they’d be lost without us,’ he remarked.
