Dan McFarland heaps praise on Iain Henderson’s leadership traits

Ulster head coach Dan McFarland. Photo by Matt Impey/Sportsfile

Dan McFarland believes Iain Henderson’s ‘calmness and confidence’ as a captain is helping to lead Ulster to where they want to go as they try to end the season with silverware.

Ireland lock Henderson returned from a shoulder injury sustained in the Six Nations win over England to make only his third appearance of the season for his club last Friday night.

He played 50 minutes in the loss to Connacht before being taken off, no doubt with this Friday night’s Challenge Cup semi-final clash against Leicester Tigers in mind.

Head coach McFarland says Henderson has “an authentic nature to the way he leads” that inspires others around him.

“Quite often when people take over the captaincy or do it on a bigger stage for the first time, they feel there is a set of requirements for a captain that need to be fulfilled or ticked off,” he said.

“For a lot of people that means going into areas of their personality that isn’t there and it’s not them. And that is usually a mistake.

“You don’t want to change who you are and the main reason for that is people see through it.

“Iain is true to himself. He is a very logical, calm person. He is somebody who understands what’s going on and is able to articulate that to another group of guys.

“If you’re asking for somebody who is going to burst with angry energy prior to a game it’s not Iain, that is not the way he does it — we’ve got Alan O’Connor for that!

“Iain is much more cerebral but with that comes a calmness and a confidence that people around him go ‘oh yeah, I’ll run out onto the pitch with this guy’.

“I played with a few captains who are both ways and he has done a really good job of finding his own space as a captain.” 

Favourites for the tournament for as long as they’ve been in it, Ulster — without a trophy in 15 years — demonstrated they can handle a level of expectation with back-to-back away wins over Harlequins and Northampton Saints.

While ‘Quins fielded a shadow team, the 35-27 win over Saints was a good confidence boost ahead of their third trip to England this weekend to face Leicester at Welford Road.

“It would be a mistake to think because Leicester sit below Northampton, or because Northampton beat them at the weekend, that this is going to be an easier challenge,” warned McFarland.

“I don’t see it like that at all. I actually think it will be a more difficult game for us, and that is not to say Northampton aren’t a quality side because they are.

“The way they play is very dangerous, but Northampton will offer more opportunities for you to play your own way. Leicester, unless you are able to do certain things in the game, they can make you struggle.

“You have to be able to deal with their setpiece, you have to be able to deal with their aerial kicking game and their hard runners.

“These are three aspects of rugby that are critical and if you don’t deal with any one of those, it doesn’t matter how you play, you will be in trouble.” 

Ulster could have done with the big European match-winning experience of Jack McGrath but the province confirmed the former Leinster loosehead prop, who hasn’t played since November, had hip surgery last week.