Six Nations 2024: Ireland’s Henderson proud to help ‘prep’ rivals for second row berths

Ireland forward Iain Henderson says he takes pride in helping his rivals for second row berths in the team perform to their best in the Six Nations.

The Irish will win the championship if they avoid defeat against Scotland.

“It makes you want to train better, to prep them better,” said Henderson of competition for second row places.

Leinster 22-year-old Joe McCarthy and Munster lock Tadhg Beirne have started three of Ireland’s four Six Nations matches to date, with McCarthy and James Ryan being paired from the start for the encounter with Italy.

Henderson came off the bench for the final 20 minutes of the win over the Italians in Dublin and for the same period of time in the narrow defeat by England at Twickenham which extinguished Irish hopes of a second consecutive Grand Slam.

A foot injury sustained while playing for Ulster against Ospreys before the victory over Wales at the Aviva has also hampered his potential involvement.

‘Buzz’ from helping others play well

“It’s been ever so slightly frustrating but it’s been great to see young lads like big Joe [McCarthy] come in. He’s been around for a year or 18 months and I’ve been able to see him grow into the player he is now and it’s great to see him getting the opportunity,” said Henderson.

“Often when you’re not playing, it makes you feel that your Test match if you like is throughout the week, to prep them.

“Then you get a good buzz out of them doing something really well at the weekend that you know you’ve prepped them, given them good pitches throughout the week, trained hard against them and given them the best opportunity to be the best version of themselves at the weekend.

“I do take a lot of pride out of that and a lot of enjoyment out of seeing those guys go really well at the weekends.

“When we come on off the bench we want to make sure we do our roles really well, adding confidence, but also being as collected and calm as possible – doing what you know you can do well.”

‘Everyone is vying for a shot at you’

The Ulster captain agreed with Ireland head coach Andy Farrell’s observation that the better team won at Twickenham on Saturday and acknowledged that their outstanding form of recent seasons made them a target for opposing teams.

“Fair play to England at the weekend, I thought they were excellent. The way they came out and started the game was fantastic and they probably deserved to win I would say,” said Henderson.

“It was obviously a tough one to take, being such a tight match right down to the wire. But the effort the lads put in was huge, we’ve had a good few days’ recovery and we’re back out to training and everyone’s got a good spring in their step to see what the weekend ahead of us holds.

“It’s a good place to be. When you get to being in such a privileged position of being the team where people want to knock you off it is difficult to stay there and to maintain records, because everyone is vying for a shot at you.

“It doesn’t make it any easier to take but you can definitely feel when teams play us they want to rattle us.”

Chance to win championship ‘massive’

Ireland must lift themselves after the disappointment of their loss to England when they face a Scotland side smarting from defeat in Italy at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

“In these fast-moving weeks, especially with back-to-back games, there’s not a huge amount of time to dwell on what has happened and I think the coaches do a really good job of getting us on to the next thing we need to focus on so they have been really positive for us.

“At the start of the campaign it [a second Grand Slam in a row] was definitely something I feel that was fully achievable for us. It was something that was a realistic outcome that guys could set as a real target for themselves.

“That probably added a wee bit to the disappointment of the weekend but we spoke about it post-training on Monday and the opportunity of a championship doesn’t come round that often either.

“The guys who are involved need to just remind themselves that we’re all lucky to be a part of this environment and to have this opportunity to win the championship at the weekend is massive.”