Iain Henderson hoping to create his own legend

Iain Henderson may be tipped to be the next Paul O’Connell, but the Ulster and Irish forward only wants to be his own man.

Currently recovering from a hand operation post Rugby World Cup, an injury that will only keep him out for six weeks, Henderson will have plenty of time to reflect on Ireland’s performance in the competition and on what life will be like following the international retirement of the iconic O’Connell.

Henderson, though admitting O’Connell’s departure is the end of an era and that the big man’s retirement will be a huge loss, doesn’t believe that any replacement should be expected to fill the ex-skipper’s boots.

“One massive thing about Paul that I wouldn’t have seen in many other players is that he feels a certain responsibility to prepare and perform for all those around him more than for himself; off the field, his preparation was superb, things like diet, his sleep, his prep for opposition analysis, for training, for meetings.

“All of those things rolled into one make him an unbelievable professional which just added to his ability and work rate around the pitch. That’s why he has been so good over so long.”

What would Henderson take from O’Connell?

“A lot, obviously, but I don’t think it’s quite right in rugby to say there is a position to be filled and we need Paul O’Connell Mk II, I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think a team should go out to replace a player exactly with another player; that’s not the way rugby works. You’ve got to look for a player that can do some things and other things that people before him might not have done.

“I appreciate what Paul brings to the game, but I don’t think I would want to step in and try to be the new Paul O’Connell, I would just want to try to be my own player.”

He was frustrated by Ireland’s finish to the World Cup campaign, knowing that injuries played a part and that failure to adapt early to the Argentina challenge cost them a semi-final place.

“They (Argentina) came out and hit us with that big blue wave. I said after the game that it wasn’t as if they shocked us — we were aware of the threat but unfortunately didn’t react well enough. We didn’t possibly have ourselves mentally prepared for not having some big game players there. It was frustrating.

“The French match was different. The second-half performance in that game was almost because of the hard work put in before that, it made the job in the second half much easier because of what the team had done in the first half.

“That’s probably the way the French, Italians, and Argentinians like to play, they want to try to bully you; against France and Italy we managed that quite well but, as you would have noticed, in the first 15 minutes of the Argentina game we didn’t. They actually bullied us up front and it gave them the impetus.”

Unlike Argentina, Ireland’s toughest game in the pool came last, and in hindsight Henderson figures that could have worked against them.

“Maybe it might have worked better had we Canada or Romania at the end of the group, but who is to know? There’s logic for all things but logic can be flawed because you never know what can happen in a tournament like this.

“Ask South Africa, for instance, who happened to have their big game at the start against Japan, and that certainly wasn’t expected.”

Iain Henderson was made available for interview by Kelkin, official supplier to the IRFU with a range of healthfood products.