Robbie Henshaw: Leinster must be ready for a punch in the face

Mike Tyson said everyone has a plan until they take a slap in the face. Henshaw knows it is at exactly that moment when Leinster will know whether they have what it takes to win

Robbie Henshaw during a Leinster Rugby squad training session at UCD in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Mike Tyson said everyone has a plan until they take a slap in the puss. Robbie Henshaw knows it is at exactly that moment when Leinster will know whether they have what it takes to win a fifth European Cup.

The province last claimed the trophy with the defeat of Racing 92 in Bilbao in 2018, since when they have come up short in a quarter-final, a semi-final and a decider. Saracens evicted them twice and La Rochelle acting as bouncer the other time.

All three losses have raised questions with the consensus being that Leo Cullen’s side has fallen short due to a combination of their opponents’ physical prowess and their own failure to be clinical enough at key times.

Welford Road this Saturday will provide another searching examination of their credentials with Cullen, who spent two years as a player with the Leicester Tigers, bracing them for the tight confines and what Robbie Henshaw labelled a “cauldron” atmosphere.

“I’ve heard it from many a coach, you’ll never play the perfect game,” said the Ireland and Lions centre. “It’s never perfect. You need to be ready for things to not go your way. Be ready for a punch in the face, that’s what they say.

“So that’s the beauty of these games. When things don’t go right, you need to be able to respond and that will be a challenge this week because, if we do get it right, it will go well for us, but if some things don’t go right, we’ll need to be ready to respond.”

Leinster have proven their ability to roll with the punches.

Last year’s quarter-finals presented them with a trip to Sandy Park and a tie against Exeter’s reigning champions and they had a dozen points to spare by game’s end despite having trailed 14-0 early doors to their hosts.

Whatever about their ability to execute over the course of three more knockout games, Leinster will not lack the appetite for the fight with the squad readdressing last year’s loss to La Rochelle ahead of this latest assignment.

This one won’t be an exact replica, though.

“Probably a little bit different. They’re a very pragmatic team in terms of how they go about their kicking game, how they apply pressure, in the sense of going through their nine and their 10. Going aerially for their kicks.

“They stick to it and, as a player, it can probably be a bit of a frustration sometimes if it’s a kick tennis game, but for us we just need to make sure we’re patient. When we get our opportunities, we’ll be able to take them.

“It might be early, it might be late in the game that it might open up a bit. When it comes to the kick tennis, that’s where, as a player, you need to be patient. It’s hard work as well. There’s a lot of running up and back. Again, we just need to be patient.”

Leicester are unbeaten on their own patch after 15 games so far this season but Connacht came closer than most to messing with that last December when they found some purchase with their starter plays and general phase play before falling six points short.

Leinster are far better equipped to capitalise on any net gains made and will hope that the two weeks most of their Ireland stars spent at home preparing for this task while a shadow squad travelled to South Africa will stand them in good stead.

Henshaw should be fresher than most having played just eleven times for club and country this season but the inevitable frustration that produced seems to have been sated at least in part by those two Champions Cup meetings with Connacht.

“We were up against it in Galway and that was a different experience for me because I played there for so long and that was my first game back there. It was hostile and I felt the full heat of the Sportsground.

“There was that element of a bit of frustration from that game and definitely brought it through to the Aviva. We knew we had to do better than what we did in Galway. Thankfully, we did up it a few gears and that showed in our performance.”