After rollercoaster time in English rugby, ex-Munster man McHenry loving life in France
TRY TIME: Alex McHenry scores his first try for Munster during a Guinness PRO14 game against Benetton at Thomond Park in March, 2021. Picture: ©INPHO/James Crombie
Last September, Alex McHenry was hit by a blow he didn’t see coming. The previous season, he’d been part of a Jersey Reds side which won the English Championship. All was going well as the centre rebuilt his career after being jettisoned by Munster.
Two weeks before being blindsided, McHenry scored a try as Jersey beat Bath in the Premiership Cup at the Recreation Ground live on TV. It was a massive moment for the club but while all appeared well on the pitch, that was not the case off it.
On the morning the team were due to fly for a game against Cornish Pirates, McHenry, his teammates, and the club’s coaches were levelled by the news that Jersey had gone into liquidation. Overnight, they were unemployed.
“We were supposed to meet at 8am and fly out on the Thursday morning. We got a text at 5:30am, 'There's a meeting now',” says McHenry.
There had been one or two whispers about the financial viability of the club but the optimist in McHenry dismissed them, choosing to focus on the next game. Then the whispers became headlines.
“The previous month, our pay was delayed,” says McHenry.
“In the Champ, the money isn't massive. A lot of lads have mortgages and kids. That was solved and the club were just like, 'That was an admin issue'. Then the following month, we had that meeting.
“The chairman was there with his lawyers and it was like, 'The club has ceased trading and you're all now unemployed'. As quickly as that from winning the Champ four months previous to beating Bath on TV at the Rec to nothing, to being unemployed. It was crazy.
“It was the most hostile thing I've ever experienced in my life - rightly so. Rob Webber, our head coach, he said to the chairperson, 'Are you going to tell me that last month when our pay was delayed that you had no idea the club was in this financial trouble?' There's definitely a whole lot of frustration and animosity.”
Just as the club was being wound up, McHenry had to do the same with his life in Jersey. He sold all of his possessions, including the old banger of a car he’d bought for £500.
“Within three days, I'd moved back to Cork and my family home, which I hadn't lived in for six years.”
McHenry, whose father John was a professional golfer, grew up in Kildare and then moved to Cork aged 10. He won a Munster Schools Senior Cup with Christian Brothers College in 2016 and then spent a year in the Munster sub academy before taking the step up to the full academy.
Four days into a 10-day trip to Boston with the Munster A team in 2019, he was called back to Ireland. Head coach Johann van Graan needed reinforcements. McHenry came off the bench against Benetton to make his debut but he played just two more games for the province.
He made starts against Edinburgh and Benetton during the 2020/21 season, scoring his first Munster try in the latter. It must have felt like his Munster career was about to take off but the rocket didn’t fire.
“When you look back on it, it's frustrating in that sense,” he says.
"I understand that it was very competitive centre partnership in Munster at the time but I definitely would have backed myself there."
The following season, McHenry joined English Premiership side Wasps as a medical joker. Ian Costello, the Munster academy manager, had been the defence coach with the English side for the previous five years.
“I'd been speaking to him briefly about my frustrations of how I wasn't getting my game time in Munster and he was like, 'Look, there might be an opportunity for you'.
“I think I'm one of very few people ever from the IRFU to go out on loan to an English club. I went straight into the mixer in Wasps. After my first week, I was starting against Saracens against eight Lions. “
While McHenry’s confidence had been boosted by four games for Wasps, his Munster career was chop tackled when he returned home.
“It was Johann and Philip Quinn, who was the acting CEO at the time, and it was a difficult conversation,” says McHenry.
“I'd just literally come back from Wasps like one day, and I was brought into a meeting. I kind of thought it was like a recap on how my time had gone.
“They were just like, 'Look, there's no contract for you for you here next year'. There's no point in being bitter about it or having a cut off them. You hold on to your pride, and you just shake their hand and walk out. Without being bitter, you feel like you have a lot to give and it wasn't really taken.
“You probably want to know by February or March where you are at for the next season. That opportunity to look for another contract is quite short.
“They weren't wasting that my time. To be honest, it was definitely for the best, I could have signed another year contract there, and I know that the coaching staff and stuff changed, but you're stuck in the same rut and your mindset doesn't change at all.
“Once I got out of that circle and that mindset of Munster as the be-all and end-all, it just changed my whole perspective on my own game.”
McHenry wanted to land at a top tier club but his agent had a connection with former Munster player Sean O’Connor who was with Jersey Reds.
“It was the best decision I’ve made,” he says.
“We had a tight group and a team who really cared about one another. I had an outstanding season. I loved every minute of it. We were very fortunate to win the league that season. I played like 19 - 20 games.
“It's just completely different to being in a place where you're probably not valued as much and you're getting two or three games with the starting team a year. Yes, it's a step down in standard, but it's a rejuvenation period.”
Though they had won the Championship, Jersey were not promoted as their ground did not meet the capacity standards required for the Premiership. That was only confirmed with five weeks of the season remaining.
TRY:
— eir Sport (@eirSport) March 19, 2021
40 mins:
MUNSTER 10-7 Benetton.
Rory Scannell sets up Alex McHenry to score his first try in Munster colours.
JJ Hanrahan kicks the conversion from in front of the posts.#MUNvBEN #GuinnessPRO14 pic.twitter.com/BGyRYfpwgF
“That was frustrating because after going on to win the whole thing, you feel like you should be a Premiership player, and you're still in the Champ,” he says.
That annoyance paled in comparison to what followed four months later. After the meeting with the chairperson, McHenry immediately contacted his agent about finding a new club. The player also put feelers out to everyone he knew in rugby. “I ended up posting on Linkedin,” he says. “It got to that stage.” It eventually paid off when he signed with French Pro D2 side Dax in November.
“I was lucky that my father had a connection with someone who had a big connection over here in France, a big figure over here,” he explains.
“He was able to kind of help me out and put in a good word on my behalf over here. To get into the French club system is incredibly difficult if you're not an international star. I'm extremely grateful because I have plenty of friends without clubs.”
McHenry has landed on his feet at Dax. The Pro D2 has a higher standard of rugby than his previous station. The Championship is populated by young players looking to mark their mark while the French second tier is filled with those who have done so already. 20 games into the season, their first back up in the Pro D2, Dax are midtable and just a point off the playoff places.
“It's a nice little town, and the weather is picking up already,” says McHenry, who is overcoming the language barrier with weekly French classes.
“They call it rugby country down in the south west. It's absolutely manic. The games have been incredible. I know we've a great atmosphere back home in Munster but here it's almost another level. You've got the bands, you got trumpets, you got flares. It's a new element to it, but it's very exciting.
“It's an incredibly physical league. It's a lot different to championship and URC. The URC is probably played with a lot more pace.
“In the Pro D2, you have a lot of Pacific Islanders or big, big French men who have come down from the Top 14 or are on their way up. It's death, taxes and a Fijian playing 12 for most of these teams.”
After the setbacks of being released by Munster and having a club wiped out with a few scribbles of a pen, even a 110kg Fijian can’t knock McHenry off course now.
“My dad has been incredible over my career,” he says.
“He dealt with his own mental battles in golf. He's always been a great sounding board for me. We call every day and we check in. Small things, if a selection doesn't go your way, it's a good thing to chat about. My mom is the same.
“Dad understands that mental side of it. We've had a lot of in depth conversations about a lot of things, particularly my career which hasn't been as conventional, successful and smooth sailing as many others. I think I've become incredibly resilient as a result.
“I just have that massive hunger and fight in my belly to prove to people that I'm good enough to be playing top level rugby.
“It would have been easy to throw the hands up and be like, 'Look, I'll just play in the Champ and the row in with poor standards' but that was never the case in my situation; I wanted to keep getting better week-on-week and keep learning from the coaches.
“Leaving Munster after being there for such a long time, you soak up this massive amount of knowledge. I didn't realise it until I'd left that I'd soaked up so much. You view the game a lot differently to some other players. I definitely had that steely ambition in me to prove those doubters wrong.”
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