Following his first ever game as Ulster captain, Iain Henderson was asked if he could recall the last time he led a team.
“I’m not sure Les wants to hear,” Henderson replied, “this but the last time was probably junior rugby in school.”
A decade on between honours but the result was the same – victory. Having called the Ireland line-out in March’s high-tempo win over England, the 25-year-old is suddenly making the huge strides his sheer size, and ability, always suggested he would.
Ahead of the Lions tour to New Zealand, Ronan O’Gara spoke about Henderson needing to burst beyond potential and “add dog” to his game. To drive on. O’Gara said:
“To me, Iain seems like a clean pro. The monsters for me are the Quinlans, the Leamys, the Ferris’s, the Sean O’Briens, in the back row. I don’t see that yet.”
We saw some of that drive, that dog, on the Lions Tour and Henderson has kicked off one of the biggest seasons of his career in great form for Ulster. On The Hard Yards podcast [from 1:03:10 below] Stephen Ferris declared Henderson should focus on becoming the second row behemoth Ireland could badly do with since Paul O’Connell retired.
The former Ulster and Ireland flanker said:
“We’ve seen how good he is on the Lions Tour. When he’s given a position and told, ‘This is your job – go out and do it’, we’ve seen how effective, and how destructive, he can be in the second row. It’s like having another back row on the pitch.
“For the benefit of Irish rugby, you’ve got to play this guy in the second row and stop shifting him about… This guy needs to be opportunity to say, ‘Right, Paul O’Connell has retired. We need someone to step in and take over from this guy.”
For all the talk, Henderson certainly delivered through his actions against Wasps. Ulster are now six wins from seven in all competitions but falling in their Champions Cup opener could have badly punctured their European ambitions.
Henderson wasn’t having a bit of it. He put in a solid performance but two moments stood out.
The first arrived with Ulster tied at 3-3 but under the pump. Wasps had been knocking on the door for several minutes and seemed certain to score when Joe Launchbury claimed a five-metre lineout and was enveloped in a powerful, rolling maul.
Ulster managed to ground the maul a yard short of the line and Henderson dipped in for seconds. It felt like an eternity but must have been less than five seconds before referee Ben Whitehouse whistled in Ulster’s favour. As the bodies peeled away, Henderson emerged with the ball and had the broad shoulders slapped off him. A crucial turnover at a crucial time.
The second moment arrived in the second half and with Ulster now in the ascendancy. Whitehouse had awarded the home side another penalty but Henderson, as captain, advised his outhalf to kick for the line. Ulster were 9-3 down at the time but the gamble paid off as – from a solid attacking platform inside the Wasps 22 – Charles Piutau and Jacob Stockdale combined to score.
Following the game, which Ulster claimed 19-9, Henderson talked through his decision to go for the attacking lineout.
“When you watch a game and see a team make a decision like that on TV or from an outsider’s point of view you can think, flip, that’s brave, you maybe should have gone for the posts
“However, you can definitely get a feel for the momentum of a game and I felt we were getting a lot of go forward ball, our forwards felt like we were on top of them, we felt our maul hadn’t quite got to the level we wanted it to and we could make something of it, and we had that in the bag from the week.
“We knew from the short turnaround they’d be starting to lag at that time of the game and we just needed to get into their 22.”
Most of us are keen to see Henderson bringing the fury but it was great to see the new captain show composure and awareness at such a vital stage of the game.
November, and Ireland’s three Tests, will be fast upon us and it will be interesting to see how Henderson is deployed by Joe Schmidt. Devin Toner has long been a favourite of the Kiwi but the prospect of teaming Henderson up with the likes of Ultan Dillane or James Ryan is an exciting one.
