It’s still a battle for king Henry
JUST as it was at the beginning of Chris Henry’s career at Ulster, so it will be towards the end.
Jordi Murphy’s move north next season from Leinster suggests Henry, who’ll be closing in on 34 by then, will be fending off the competition as hard as when he started.
The openside was made to wait for his Ulster debut, which came finally in 2009 against Harlequins – today’s opponents – and it took an injury crisis to get him over the white line.
‘You’d be hearing every Sunday night who was injured and hoping you might get a shout.
‘But they kept bringing in other players or moving players around.
‘You were getting impatient and then I finally got to go and kept in for the rest of that season. I also started that day at No8, where I won my first Irish cap as well.
‘But to beat Harlequins in the Heineken Cup on your very first Ulster cap was very special.’
There’s a sink-orswim feeling to their first competitive encounter since then.
Quins are coming off a confidenceboosting win over Saracens, while Ulster go the Stoop out of sorts and form.
‘It’s a long season, we’ve been in much worse situations than we are in now,’ says Henry.