IΑΙΝ HENDERSON

The Ulster lock is a big noise for Ireland, so we get inside his head....

-  Tom English

BACK IN the day, when Iain Henderson was still the uncapped tyro of Ravenhill, he shared a student house with a couple of other likely lads, a gang of boys who found their kicks in the strangest places. For fun, they blew up microwaves. At thirty quid a pop – a tenner a head – it was worth it to see what kind of things they could stuff in there to make it pop.

“We went through three or four of them,” Henderson recalls. “For all the craic we had, it was worth the money.”

A year later, he made his debut for Ireland against South Africa and everything started to change. “After that South Africa game I remember thinking back to a year before and still arsing about in that student house, setting things on fire, putting weird stuff in microwaves…”

That first cap came in the autumn of 2012. Now, in the spring of 2024, he is about to crash through the 80-cap barrier while pushing on towards the 90s. For a guy who described his younger self as “scrawny, lazy, just easing along”, he has come a long way. Former Ireland buddy Donnacha Ryan once jokingly called him “extremely bright, though he hides it well”. Henderson is a character, no question.

Married now with two kids and a couple of dogs, he has two Grand Slams, two Lions tours and four Six Nations titles. He’s captain of Ulster and has captained his country. He’s about to play in his 11th Six Nations and has the same giddy anticipation as he had when starting out…

Does the championship ever feel tired?