FOR ULSTER AND Ireland powerhouse Iain Henderson, this season has been a severely curtailed one.
The 24-year-old has missed the majority of his province’s season (not to mention Ireland’s Six Nations campaign) with a ripped hamstring. Understandably, the time spent rehabilitating the injury has been an intensely frustrating one, no matter how things were going on the field in his absence.
“Watching Ulster get back-to-back wins over Toulouse, and Ireland — three more points between the first two games and you’re sitting with two wins under your belt and licking your lips.
[image alt="Iain Henderson celebrates his try with Stuart Olding and Paddy Jackson" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2016/04/iain-henderson-celebrates-his-try-with-stuart-olding-and-paddy-jackson.jpg" width="100%" height="" title="" class="alignnone" /end]
“On the other hand, the team mightn’t be doing as well. There were times this season — like when Ulster slipped up against Scarlets — you’re thinking: ‘Maybe if I was able to play I would have given a wee bit more to the side around the park, getting carries or whatever…’
“Either way, when I’m injured I definitely feel frustrated. I feel like I could have been giving more and trying to improve the team or be a part of it.”
Henderson was finally able to lace up his boots in anger again when Glasgow Warriors came to Belfast in late March. He scored a try, played 80 minutes and was back a week later. Yet he has found it difficult to feel any sense of momentum with Champions Cup weekends coming along like a forceful wave, fortnight-long gaps dragging at his progress like a loose rock.
He’s not alone, and certainly not happy to be going into Saturday’s clash with Leinster having played once in the last three weekends.
“(The Glasgow game) felt good. I was tired, obviously. It always takes a few games after injury, especially a lower limb injury. Getting back slowly into the swing of things.
[image alt="Iain Henderson" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2016/04/iain-henderson-38.jpg" width="100%" height="" title="" class="alignnone" /end]
“In terms of personal effort, I think coming back into it with two weeks’ break has made it slightly more difficult. But I think it’s been good for the team to have those breaks in between games. From a personal point of view, you want to get games under your belt, which has been difficult to do with those weeks off.”
Speaking as part of the Kingspan Media Day ahead of what will likely be Ulster’s last Kingspan Stadium outing of the season, Henderson stops himself to make sure the definition of ‘off’ is understood.
“For those weeks off, it’s been good to get training weeks under our belt. They haven’t been down weeks, weeks off, they’ve just been game-days off, so to speak. We’ve been training pretty flat-out for those weeks, making sure we have ourselves best prepared for the following game.
It stood us well for Zebre, so hopefully with the last week down as a training week, hopefully we’ve prepared enough for Leinster and to do a job there.”
Heading into just his seventh Ulster appearance of the season, his timely recovery is a welcome one for his country too. However, thoughts of facing down the Springboks over three Tests are far from Henderson’s mind this week. International consideration is firmly on the back-burner.
“Subconsciously you have it in your mind that to get your Irish selection you have to play well for Ulster. So there’s no point in even considering Irish call-ups if you’re not playing well for Ulster. That’s the way a lot of the boys look at it.
“And you know the only way you can play well for Ulster is: keep your head down, get the detail right, play your role in the team as well as you can.
“We know Les will have us well-prepped, Doaky will have the plays tailored for Leinster. So if we nail all the plays, there’s no reason we can’t break them down and do a job on them.”
