Henderson would treasure a Triple Crown on home soil
Iain Henderson hopes to put a frustrating season behind him by lifting silverware with Ireland at the Aviva Stadium this weekend.
Due to a combination of thumb, hamstring and ankle injuries, Henderson has seen precious little game time for Ulster while he was forced to sit out Ireland’s third round Six Nations clash against Italy after testing positive for Covid-19.
However, having replaced James Ryan after 82 seconds of last weekend’s 32-15 victory over England at Twickenham Stadium, he is expected to start against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
They will require a favour from the English if Henderson is to end the campaign with a fourth Six Nations title, but a win at the expense of the Scots will guarantee a Triple Crown at the very least.
“The chance to lift silverware with any team, be it club or especially country, is absolutely enormous. I’m not sure if any guy in this squad has lifted silverware internationally at home. That would be unbelievably massive and the excitement that has brought us leading into this week has been huge,” Henderson acknowledged.
“It has been a massive driver for us, but we’ve got to make sure we set that excitement aside to ensure we can concentrate on our game. We’ve got to focus on the Triple Crown and hope that what we do during the week covers that off. Then obviously whatever happens after that will be an added bonus and hopefully England can do the job on France.”
There had been calls in some quarters for Henderson to start the England game and potentially make way for someone else in the closing stages of the play. As it turned out, Ryan’s early withdrawal following a head high tackle from Charlie Ewels – which earned the English lock a red card – meant he was forced to play virtually the whole contest.
“Funny enough, just prior to the game Jack Conan and I were in the changing rooms before we got changed. We were joking about coming on early and in the last Six Nations it actually happened against Wales too. In my head I was almost thinking ‘look the odds of it happening again must be pretty slim’, but there you go. 78 minutes later it was a different story,” Henderson recalled.
Henderson has had his own issues with concussions in the past and while he is concerned to see Ryan once again being ruled out of international duty for this reason, he trusts that the IRFU’s medical and coaching staff won’t bring him back into the fold until the time is right to do so.
“Big Cheese [Ryan] wouldn’t take something like that lightly either. It definitely will be frustrating for him, but he’s probably pretty confident that one thing he does have on his side is a really good medical team that are going to look after him and make the right decisions. He knows that he has the full support of the coaches, the medical staff and again the players.”