Iain Henderson swats excuses out of the way as if they were would-be tacklers.
Arguably no Irish player came out of the World Cup with his reputation more enhanced than the bullocking Ulster forward, who is likely to forge a long-term partnership Devin Toner in the Ireland second-row following Paul O’Connell’s retirement.
However the 23 year old, like most of his team-mates, failed to match earlier performances in Sunday’s quarter-final defeat to Argentina. Speaking to the media afterwards Henderson refused to blame the World Cup exit on injuries, the seven-day turnaround, Sean O’Brien’s suspension, the Hand of God or the Falkland Islands.
“You can use injuries as an excuse if you want to, but when it comes to it the bottom line is we knew injuries were going to happen, irrespective, injuries happen to every team.
“We couldn’t have got more from the players who stepped in, but they were massive losses given they were players in such key positions, but there is no reason we should look to that as a reason,” he said of the injuries, which saw Ireland with out Paul O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony, Johnny Sexton and Jared Payne.
“Six-day turnaround shouldn’t come into it as a factor. We looked after ourselves, we knew we had the game in six days so it shouldn’t have come as a shock to us.
“Going back to the same point again, there is no reason we had to let them into the game so much at the start,” said Henderson, who admitted the team could have done with O’Brien not being suspended for the quarter-final.
“We’ve all done stupid stuff in the game and you’d hold nothing against him for it.”
Plain speaking from the Ulster man, who looks set to be one of the most important players for Joe Schmidt as the head coach looks to regroup ahead of the Six Nations.
