CENTRE OF ATTENTION
Henshaw and Aki can end tinkering in midfield Pair proved their ability together at Connacht
PAT LAM can be forgiven a smug smile if it all goes well tomorrow for Ireland’s latest new midfield partnership. The former Connacht boss now earns his corn in the out-of-sight English Championship but with Bristol pencilled in for a lunchtime start at home to Rotherham, Lam will be finished well in time to cast his eye on the midfield marriage consummated out west which Joe Schmidt is now showcasing for the first time in the Test arena.
Lam was a stickler for doing things his own way in Galway, going against the grain of the national interest when it suited. Despite Henshaw so often on Ireland duty in the No12 shirt, the Athlone youngster rarely if ever started in that number jersey at Connacht, the provincial coach instead insisting the outside centre channel was where he best served their team.
No one could argue with Lam’s selection persistence. His guidance of Connacht to a first league title was one of the most incredible achievements in Irish rugby history and the rock this emergence was built on was the pairing of Henshaw — donning 13 — with overseas recruit Bundee Aki dextrously running the channel inside him.
It worked a treat, their greatest day materialising in Edinburgh in May 2016 when Schmidt’s former club side Leinster were cut to ribbons by the wizardry Lam dared to unveil.
Eighteen months later, this Aki/ Henshaw axis — which ended at club level that famous afternoon in Scotland as Henshaw soon joined the beaten Leinster — now goes international tomorrow, the absences of the injured Garry Ringrose and Jared Payne (below) forcing Schmidt to once more cast his midfield net wide and rejig his combination.
It’s nothing unusual. Centre has been quite the moveable feast on the New Zealander’s watch, his preference to trial the newly project-qualified Kiwi Aki with Henshaw the 23rd different midfield pairing used in 48 matches. That’s quite the ruthless turnover, particularly as 15 of the previously trialled 22 partnerships only ever got a single audition before being tossed aside.
Schmidt could have revived one of those oneoff combinations tomorrow, but despite the heavier and taller Stuart McCloskey possessing greater physical presence, Aki has got the nod over the Ulster midfielder who has only ever been capped once.
Not that his February 2016 Twickenham appearance was an unmitigated disaster. Schmidt had chosen to pair debut-making McCloskey with Hen- shaw, an unusual tactic as it was only Henshaw’s second time occupying the 13 shirt. Suddenly, a different type of Henshaw was glimpsed.
Life in the tighter margins of the Test game 12 channel is claustrophobic, relentlessly more physically bruising. Henshaw sure has had to work hard for his career 677-metre gain off 246 carries as an inside centre Ireland starter, an average 2.75-metre reward for every advance.
But unshackled that evening in London in the wider spaces outside McCloskey, he carried for a career-high 108 metres off 13 carries. This ample reward tempted Schmidt to take another look, Henshaw making 30 metres off nine carries in the 14-man Cape Town win over South Africa some months later.
However, an injury early in the next game put an end to the experiment and it will be only tomorrow — 14 games later — that we get to see Henshaw wear No13 for just the fifth time in 27th starts under Schmidt.
Reliability is the desire as midfield has too often been a headache for the coach since Brian O’Driscoll’s retirement signalled the end for the record-breaking partnership he forged with Gordon D’Arcy.
Schmidt had relished the latecareer taste he got of this longestablished duo, starting them together six times in his first season which culminated in that memorable Six Nations titleclinching win away to France in Paris. Since then, though, the search for a combination to stand the test of time has been exhaustive and constantly reassessed.
He thought he might have solved the riddle in November 2014 when South Africa were last in Dublin, the project qualification of Payne, another fellow Kiwi, nudging him into trying out a midfield with the Ulster full-back at 13 outside Henshaw.
In doing so, a balance was struck. Payne didn’t offer the same range of attacking threat he wielded provincially from 15, but what he brought to the Test midfield was defensive solidity
borne out by him missing just 17 tackles in his 17 midfield starts.
Henshaw/Payne was central to Ireland’s successful Six Nations title defence in 2015, but injuries scuppered Schmidt’s World Cup plans and the duo failed to appear even once together in that fivematch campaign. In Ireland’s 20 matches since, they have been his midfield pick just six times.
Injuries and Lions call-ups were reasons, but it didn’t go unnoticed either that last March for the Six Nations finale against England, rather than jettison the burgeoning partnership Henshaw had built that spring with Ringrose, Schmidt placed the available Payne at full-back.
That was a considerable change in tack given the three years invested in converting Payne to 13, but midfield flux is again Ireland’s lot heading into this November series.
None of the three centres who started in USA and Japan in June — Luke Marshall, Ringrose and Rory Scannell — made this squad, one injured and two deemed not in good enough form. Instead, uncapped duo Aki and Chris Farrell, along with one-capper McCloskey, were pencilled in with Henshaw who will hope to now cut a dash similar to what Ringrose fleetingly brought to the 13 role.
The legendary O’Driscoll set an impeccable benchmark over 133 appearances, scoring 46 tries, but scores for Schmidt’s centres were rare enough until rangy Ringrose got his look in, bagging four tries in nine appearances, three coming while operating at No13.
Henshaw has only ever scored twice in 22 starts at inside centre under Schmidt (the 2015 winner against England and the 2017 clincher versus the All Blacks), but there is optimism his re-positioning outside Test newcomer Aki might better unlock his undoubted attacking potency.
It needs to happen. After years of constantly rolling the midfield dice, Aki-Henshaw surely can’t become yet another one-off centre partnership.
Midfield has often been a headache since Brian O’Driscoll’s retirement