PERSEVERANCE PAYS OFF Many talents are worn down by what it takes to recover
In a career blighted by injury setbacks, Robbie Henshaw has shown a remarkable ability to bounce back
IN THE basement of a baking stadium, and with a World Cup campaign freshly launched with a hammering of Romania, Robbie Henshaw looked the glummest Irishman in France.
It was September 9 last, and a day of merciless heat in Bordeaux was reluctantly giving way to night.
With an 82-8 victory recorded and a gathering sense of excitement about what the weeks ahead may hold, the Irish squad environment was a light and happy one.
But Henshaw had stumbled into a familiar spiral before the match, when he was withdrawn from the squad with a hamstring injury.
Outside a dressing room full of noisy chatter after the win, he walked past and seemed careworn, saying hello but looking like a man who didn’t want to chat.
He got back to appear off the bench in the next two games, against Tonga and in the famous win against South Africa, before another hamstring injury in training ended his tournament.
There has been no opponent in his career as meddlesome for Robbie Henshaw as injury. He won his 69th cap against Italy here in Aviva Stadium, and for the second time in eight days, he logged a performance distinguished by class, accuracy and a power that hasn’t been dimmed by a decade at the top of his sport.
Italy posed nothing like the problems that France did, even in their reduced state in Marseille, but they were big and aggressive, and they were as helpless in checking Henshaw’s influence as the French had been.
The partnership between Garry Ringrose and Bundee Aki illuminated Ireland’s World Cup; the former is a composed defender and brilliant in attack, while Aki is now arguably the form centre in the world game.
That leaves Andy Farrell with three cutting-edge options for two centre spots, because in this form, and with his body staying loyal to him, Henshaw offers as much as either of them.
From the start in Aviva Stadium, Henshaw was involved, bullocking free of Italian tacklers, popping up twice in the move for Jack Crowley’s opening try, and providing a deft lay-off in the move that ended with Dan Sheehan trying to run t hrough a hapless Italian defender.
He will be 31 in June, and the Westmeath man has been a treasured talent since his early 20s. He joined Leinster from Connacht following that unforgettable 2016 Pro14 win for Pat Lam’s team.
By then, Henshaw had won 20 caps under Joe Schmidt, and along with Ringrose, was responsible for banishing anxieties about what would happen when the Brian O’Driscoll era ended.
But the toll of the modern game was taken early and it’s been extracted often since.
Along with the back row, centre must be the most punishing position in the modern game, a theatre of unremitting physical demands.
To be a blazing young talent there comes with consequences, but while Henshaw has had his share of contact injuries, he has also been hobbled by muscle complaints.
Hamstring injuries have been a recurring problem.
That was why there was a particular cruelty about that complaint ruining the last World Cup; the same problem ruptured his previous two selections.
In 2015, he missed Ireland’s first two matches with a hamstring problem. In 2019, he managed two starts, but was out for the first three matches.
A hamstring issue, combined with surgery for a wrist complaint, confined him to 94 minutes of the Grand Slam crusade a year ago.
In 2018, he started and starred in the first match of the Slam campaign, away to Paris in the match decided by Johnny Sexton’s drop goal.
In the next round against Italy, he injured his shoulder scoring a try. The damage was so significant it was presumed he would be out for the season, including Ireland’s tour of Australia that summer.
Instead, he was fit for the semifinal and final of Leinster’s victorious European Cup campaign, and started all three Tests against the Wallabies.
That is typical, because if injury has been a regular menace in his career, his capacity for bouncing back has been just as pronounced.
Resilience is presumed to be a feature of every player’s makeup, but many an outstanding talent has been worn down by what it takes to come back time and again.
Henshaw has persevered, and through all his setbacks there must have been some reassurance in knowing that some of the best coaches in the game wanted him involved.
Schmidt, Farrell, Stuart Lancaster and Leo Cullen have all
prized his role, and on the evidence of the first two rounds that needs no explaining.
Given the difficulties he has overcome, seeing a try ruled out for a double movement in the second half won’t have bothered him much. It looked a close call, but it didn’t knock a stir out of him.
With Ringrose and Aki both currently injured, and with no certainty about their returns for the Wales game until the team is announced in nine days’ time, Henshaw’s form must be a major consolation to Farrell.
He left with 17 minutes to play, replaced by Jordan Larmour, and perhaps it’s a result of his extensive fitness history that one wondered if he was walking a little gingerly.
That, though, might simply be how you move after a smashing display.
It was only one of a number on an afternoon best described as efficient. And that’s not to damn the effort with f aint praise, because this was a performance that was slick despite six changes to the team that had started in Marseille.
Of the incomers for this fixture, Craig Casey shone brightest. Given the critical importance of Jamison Gibson-Park to how Ireland play, it was a timely showing from the Munster No 9.
Farrell is doggedly loyal to Conor Murray, who was on duty yesterday bringing on Jack Crowley’s kicking tee, but Casey must be pushing him hard for a squad place for the Welsh match.
Crowley continued his development, with another mix of excellent play-making, some inconsistent decisions, and a need for better accuracy off the kicking tee.
Joe McCarthy hurtles on towards the designation Big Joe, his every carry and grapple drawing great cheers from the happy crowd.
This was exactly what the Irish coaches wanted, an emphatic win secured without drama, and with no obvious fitness issues yet.
They, though, tend to emerge in the days after matches, and they are the threat that even the bestrun camp cannot deflect.
Robbie Henshaw knows this better than anyone under Farrell’s care.
And he knows, too, that fighting to get back involved is worth it, when times are this good.