SO FARR SO GOOD

Results don’t show it but Henshaw’s sure Ireland are moving in right direction since Andy replaced Joe

ROBBIE HENSHAW believes Andy Farrell was right to steer Ireland away from the Joe Schmidt way.

Henshaw has offered a staunch defence of Farrell’s philosophy and claims a more “heads-up” approach is bringing the best out of him.

The 27-year-old’s form has been one of the main success stories of the stop-start Farrell era so far – one that badly needs a convincing victory in Rome this afternoon after two opening Six Nations defeats.

Ireland’s attack has been criticised for a lack of imagination but, in scoring a try against France in October and a try-creating off-load against Wales in the Six Nations, Henshaw has stood out as someone embracing Farrell’s more relaxed approach.

“I’m enjoying my rugby and just enjoying having a run of games,” the centre said as he looked forward to reaching a half century of caps today.

“The frustration of being fit for a few games or the first couple in a Six Nations and then having my campaign ending early, that’s hindered me in progressing and getting to that top level of my performance.

“Is it the best I’ve played? I’m not sure. I had some great years when I first came on the scene.

“But enjoying it is a big thing for me. Always striving to improve.

“You never have the perfect game, so I’m just trying to keep improving and keep positive.”

In his own words, Henshaw explained the difference between Schmidt’s prescriptive tactics and Farrell’s licence for players to act upon what’s in front of them.

So far, it is something his squad have struggled to adjust to.

“Based on me as an individual, it places the onus on myself,” Henshaw said. “I need to challenge myself how to play.

“With defences being so good lately, how do you impose yourself, how do you find space and gaps?

“The thing with Joe’s set-up, it was very planned. The first three or four phases were very planned.

“It’s probably an individual thing for me – it’s how can I get better, how can I create something that’s not planned. So that’s probably the difference.”

The Athlone man added: “It’s huge. Every player needs to play heads-up rugby, particularly at this level because defences are so much better, players are so much better, the time and space you have is reduced.

“It’s great because that’s what I was coached when I was younger in the Connacht Academy with Nigel Carolan.

“He was a big believer in heads-up rugby, playing to where the space is.”

But what Ireland must do now is show tangible and consistent signs that they are embracing the change.

Farrell has targeted three wins to finish this championship in credit, but that will require his team going up several levels.

“I think we need to go and back ourselves, have full confidence in the group that’s selected,” Henshaw said.

“We know it’s not going to be easy. Italy are showing up and they’ve shown some really good pieces of play, particularly against England and France, scored lovely tries.

“They’re quite a young side that backs themselves, so we need to have that in our head that we get our basics right and don’t just try to go all-out attack.

“We need to just build into it and make sure we go from moment to moment.

“As you’ll see,

Italy have quite aggressive linespeed. They do try to shut things down in the middle of the pitch.

“But things constantly change and teams do have different strategies.

“It’s about how we adapt on the pitch and how we can have the conversation that, ‘Right, they are not doing this, so let’s go to this plan’.

“So we always need to a back-up.”

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