Jennings revved up to complete a spectacular French hat-trick

FORMER Irish Tarmac champion Garry Jennings has taken a real liking for French rallying and he’ll be back there next week seeking a third successive win.

He and co-driver Rory Kennedy are heading for the Rally La Rochelle, a round of the French Championship, to finish off a late season push in which they have won the Bethunois and Charlemagne rallies in their Go Subaru Impreza S12.

Jennings describes it as “a great new experience” after years of competing on the same Irish events, winning many of them, including the Ulster and Donegal Internationals.

“It was all getting a bit stale for me and I wanted to do something different,” said the Kesh fuel company boss. “It was Rory who came up with the idea of going to the continent and it has been brilliant.

“The welcome has been fantastic. They just love to see new faces taking part and they are mad to get more Irish drivers to come over. We are already making plans for next season we’ve enjoyed it so much.”

Jennings says it is little more expensive that going to Irish Tarmac rounds like the Galway International or the Rally of the Lakes.

“We have been basing the Subaru with First Motorsport in Belgium rather than transporting in back and forth, and the mechanics fly over at the beginning of the week to get it ready. We also ship out a pallet of tyres, fuel and spares,” he explained.

“Rory and I travel over in time for the recce, which is just two passes over the stages to prepare our notes. They are all new to me, unlike at home where we are usually doing the same stages year in year out, and that makes it a real challenge.”

Meanwhile, the nominees for Motorsport Ireland’s Young Drivers of the Year have taken part in interviews in Dublin this week ahead of the announcement of the winners of the 30,000 euro bursaries.

Charlie Eastwood, Jordan Hone and James Wilson are among the Ulster drivers in the running.

THE glint in Robbie Henshaw’s eye is matched by the wry smile that is etched across his face when he is asked about playing at full-back in his last game for Leinster two weeks ago.

For those who watched Henshaw in his early days, the majority would probably have hedged their bets that, longterm, he would have ended up in the number 15 jersey.

Leinster had other ideas, however. Or, more specifically, Joe Schmidt did.

The rationale was understandable. Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy brought the curtain down on the finest midfield partnership this country has produced and Schmidt saw something in Henshaw that suggested he could help to fill their sizeable boots.

To be fair, it hasn’t worked out too badly, particularly because there aren’t too many better talent-spotters than Schmidt. Yet for others, there is a nagging sense of what might have been had Henshaw continued in the full-back role.

Fitness permitting, Schmidt will face the conundrum of selecting two between Henshaw, Garry Ringrose and Bundee Aki, which means that one world-class centre may not make the matchday 23.

It is exactly the type of selection headache that every coach wants, but Henshaw’s last outing against Benetton a fortnight ago offered a rare glimpse of the threat he could pose with more space and time on the ball.

The Athlone native slotted in at full-back and covered the backfield extremely well. He even had a couple of raking touch-finders, a throwback to his GAA days.

Henshaw has never started a game for Leinster outside of the two centre positions, but he did slot in at full-back against Munster in Dublin a couple of seasons ago.

When he first broke through in Connacht he played at fullback and, earlier this year, a man who watched Henshaw develop from an exciting schoolboy into a fully-fledged JORDAN Larmour’s speedy attacking abilities have put him on a path to fulfilling his “scary” potential, according to Ireland team-mate Luke McGrath.

Leinster wing Larmour raced in a blistering hat-trick on his first Test start as Ireland thumped Italy 54-7 in Chicago on Saturday.

The 21-year old has been shortlisted for World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year award having starred as Leinster scooped the Guinness PRO14 and Champions Cup double.

Rob Kearney’s continued shoulder injury issues could see Larmour continue at full-back in Saturday’s Test clash with Argentina in Dublin, with scrum-half McGrath backing his provincial team-mate to thrive if called upon again. international by the age of 19 (when he made his debut at full-back) summed up the situation nicely.

“A Ferrari can pull a trailer, but you don’t want your Ferrari pulling a trailer. He can do the job, but you get a tractor in at 12 and the Ferrari outside him,” John Muldoon told to Off The Ball.

“Robbie’s best position is 15, absolute fact. And he wants to play 15. To me, playing him at 12 is a travesty to him but you need your best players on the pitch, and if Robbie’s your best 12, you play him at 12, if you’ve got no other option.”

And therein lies the crux of the issue. Since Henshaw became Ireland’s first-choice inside centre, there has always been a feeling that, privately at least, he feels he can bring much more to the party than just trucking it up in midfield and bringing others around him into play.

The emergence of Aki into a quality Ireland international could, in theory, free up Henshaw to play in his supposed preferred position. But then again, Schmidt is not exactly short of full-back options.

Henshaw only turned 25 last summer. But given that he hasn’t started at full-back since his debut five years ago, the chances of doing so again are slim.

Sitting in Carton House, Henshaw is relaxed and his face lights up when that idea is put to him.

“He’d probably laugh at me,” Henshaw smiles when asked what Schmidt’s reaction would