HE WAS NOT among the top three hookers when it came time to select a World Cup squad last summer, yet Rob Herring’s name never jumped off the page as a mark of change under the new Ireland coaching ticket.
The Ulster hooker ought to take slight as a positive.
Three of his eight appearances prior to this Six Nations had been starts and he featured in all three Tests of the series win over Australia. Nobody even questioned that he could do the job, he just wasn’t a brand new man doing the job.
Still, the youthful power of Ronan Kelleher is an enticing alternative for Andy Farrell. So Herring speaks like a man being kept on his toes. He has played back-up to Rory Best ever since moving to Ireland in 2012 and he was intent on nailing the basics when his he took his turn as the front line front row.
To beat England, to keep Ireland progressing, he knows he’ll have to deliver more.
“The first two games, set-piece has obviously been my main thing to get right. I have shown a few things around the park but I can bring a bit more involvements in the game,” said the Ulster hooker before flying out for London yesterday.
“I have been happy with my first two games but I feel there is more in me as well.”
More in him as he enters a third straight Test as a starter. There is room for growth at the top, while competition on the rungs below has pushed Sean Cronin and Niall Scannell down the pecking order now after they took the nod for Japan. Herring doesn’t reveal any trace of a grudge held over past selections or even vindication that he holds the jersey now.
The selection has been selection. I have always felt that I was playing at a level good enough to be here.
“But I am a hard worker. That’s what I bring. I am never going to get too far ahead of myself. I am going to do my best and prepare the best I can for the game.”
Preparations, the 29-year-old adds, can go too far. Wittingly or otherwise after Paul O’Connell visited the squad this week, Herring echoes a sentiment the Lions captain once uttered in the early days of the Joe Schmidt’s tenure.
“I think you can only go so far in your detail, particularly in rugby, it’s a physical sport and if you don’t have that emotion I don’t think you will achieve at the highest level.
You have to be able to bring that out, in a controlled way. It’s obviously a bit different these days, you can’t be throwing digs or anything like that. But be aggressive and emotional in that controlled way is vital.
“When you have 15 guys doing that together that’s when you can do something special.”
And beating the World Cup finalists on their own patch would be something special indeed.
“We’ve seen what their DNA is over the last few years under Eddie.
“It’s all about gainline carries and getting on top of teams. The last time we played them they probably won that aspect of the game and it showed on the scoreboard.
“That’s massively important this week, not just for the forwards but the whole team to start dominating those.”
