Henderson: Selection worries need to take a back seat for Samoan challenge

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has brought forward his World Cup squad announcement from Monday morning to Sunday afternoon.

TEAM FOCUS: Ireland captain Ian Henderson during an Ireland rugby media conference. 

Iain Henderson has challenged his Ireland squad-mates to forget any anxiety about World Cup selection and concentrate on pushing their claims through producing a collective team performance to be proud of against Samoa on Saturday night.

The Ireland lock will captain his country for the second time in this pre-tournament summer campaign as Johnny Sexton sits out the third and final game of his three-match suspension when Andy Farrell’s squad round out a week of warm-weather training in southwestern France against a strong Samoa side at Stade Jean Dauger.

The head coach has brought forward his World Cup squad announcement from Monday morning to Sunday afternoon, by which time he will have trimmed his 38-man squad down to 33 to comply with tournament rules.

Henderson has urged the matchday 23 selected on Thursday to cast aside any stress involved in that wait and focus on the task at hand, delivering an improved performance from last week’s win over England and maintaining an upward trajectory towards the opening Pool B match against Romania on September 9.

"Close to half the squad haven't been in this position before but you can't keep control of things that happen in games in terms of the injury side of things,” Henderson said on Friday following Ireland’s captain’s run training session. “So what the players are focusing on is how they're going to put their best foot forward for Faz to get a good glimpse of them.

"He knows each one of us pretty intimately at this stage and I feel that the final step that the players can take is to actually go out and show it again in the Test match this weekend.

"That anxiety is obviously stressful enough for players, but at the same time nothing that players aren't used to in terms of stress in the professional rugby environment.” 

Henderson added the collective ethos of the squad extended beyond the playing field and training pitch.

“I think there is a type of anxiety there but the players are well used to being put in sticky situations, selections for Cup finals, selections for tours, selections for Six Nations games.

"Obviously this one carries a slightly different weight but we're a really tight-knit group, the guys who are feeling probably the worst about it are probably the best supported.

"We understand how we're all getting on and that's something that the guys have done a really good job of around that collective, and I feel that the guys really do look out for each other and there's a genuine care for how each other is feeling.

"And within the same positions as well, so it's not just for other members of the team, it runs right through the squad.”