He has been called a man-child before but ‘genetic freak’ is a new twist.
Rory Best gushed about the performance of Ulster and Ireland teammate Iain Henderson following his side’s 50-7 dismissal of Canada, on Saturday.
The lock scored a try, beat two defenders, had two successful offloads and gained 36 attacking metres in his World Cup debut. In defence, he secured one turnover and landed 19 tackles.
In the post-match mixed zone, Best smiled when asked about the 23-year-old.
“Hendy’s a bit of a genetic freak,” Best remarked. “If you give him the ball in certain situations he’s very hard to stop.
“It’s great for him and to get through a hard 80 minutes will be a big boost for him.”
The hooker revealed that Henderson’s teammates have been trying to shake him off his laid-back demeanor out on the pitch.
“We’re trying to get him to look as though he’s a bit more clued-in,” he said.
“It’s something you see every month and big game that goes by now, he just grows and gets better and better, and the big players around him and the influence of the coaches, it’s all paying dividend.
“It’s hard to know where the limit is with his potential.”
Given his growing influence on the team, and starring role in the second row, the comparisons with Paul O’Connell are inevitable.
“I think for Hendy it’s about taking the bits of [O’Connell’s] game, but he has to generate his own thing too.
“Paulie has bits of his game that Hendy doesn’t and he can work on that, but the flip side is that Hendy has a lot of aspects of his game in terms of athleticism and raw power that a lot of people don’t have.
“So he has to mould his game, keep trying to get better, take the bits from Paulie too, because in world rugby I don’t think you’re going to get a better role model as a second row than Paul O’Connell.
“He’s very lucky to be playing alongside him.”
“Hendy will learn from that, and get better through that.”
Best added, “Hendy has to be his own player though, because he can do things on the ball that a lot of people in world rugby can’t do.”
