Henshaw: ‘Mixing And Matching’ Has Been A Strength Of Mine

Having yet to experience a Six Nations win on Welsh soil, Robbie Henshaw’s eagerness to get the job done on Saturday is obvious as Ireland prepare to resume their 2025 Championship campaign.

A wrist injury ruled Henshaw out of the 34-10 bonus point win in Cardiff two years ago, but he has looked back close to his best in terms of fitness and form when playing in 12 of Ireland’s last 13 Test matches.

He got 80 minutes under his belt in last July’s victory over South Africa, the 150th Anniversary Test against Australia, and the bonus point triumph over Scotland last time out. Cap number 80 is on the cards this weekend.

“Personally I’ve been delighted to be involved in the first two games,” he said, following his appearance off the bench against England, and his start in Edinburgh. “There has been a good vibe in the camp, hugely positive.

“We’re always looking at pushing the bar and there’s always things we can get better at over those two games. It’s been good, looking forward to going again.”

Looking at his numbers from the opening two rounds, Henshaw had 12 ball carries for 92 metres, made one linebreak and two tackle breaks, put in 17 tackles, and totted up 78.4 kicking metres from three kicks.

He has also put together a run of matches in Leinster blue either side of Christmas, mostly in the number 12 jersey as they went through their Investec Champions Cup pool unbeaten, and recorded a bonus point success away to arch rivals Munster.

The Athlone man definitely had a spring in his step coming into his 11th Guinness Men’s Six Nations tournament, having had his new two-year contract extension with the IRFU announced in December, and produced a two-try player-of-the-match performance against Bath.

“Yeah, it has been a great run. My old rehab coach says playing is ‘protective’ so the more games you have under your belt the better. It always falls in your favour when you get a run of games,” admitted the 31-year-old.

“It’s more when you stop-start that you run into trouble. It’s been great in the last year, it has been good.

“I’ve been enjoying it, especially playing at 12 which definitely feels physically tougher in terms of contact. At 13 the lines and the running metres you are doing are more, so it’s probably demanding running-wise.

“For me it has helped my rugby skills, it is good for my rugby knowledge to be able to play both (positions) because I think full-back has gone for me – maybe when I retire and go back to the AIL!”

As interim head coach Simon Easterby acknowledged before the Scotland clash, Ireland are in a very privileged position with ‘three brilliant centres who are playing really well at the moment, and it was always our intention over the first couple of weeks to mix it (the selection) up’.

All of Bundee Aki’s 57 starts for Ireland have come at inside centre, apart from donning the number 13 shirt alongside Stuart McCloskey against Italy during the 2023 Six Nations. Garry Ringrose is very much an out-and-out 13, providing wing cover to boot.

Henshaw enjoys playing with both of them, and showing his versatility as ‘a bit of a hybrid’. “With last year what happened was that Garry was unfortunately out for a while with a shoulder injury, and I happened to play a lot with Leinster at 13 with Jamie Osborne at 12.

“It has always been, again it’s hard to know, one week at 12, the next it’s outside (centre). You need to be able to do it, you need to be able to play both. It’s probably a strength of mine that I can mix and match between both.

“You challenge each other, I challenge Garry and Bundee to be able to slot into both because in the middle of a game something might happen that…you mix and match and move around. You always have to be adaptable.”

Speaking about the rotation of the centres, he added: “We all know each other’s strengths inside out now at this stage. A lot of work goes in during the week to making sure that everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet.

A lot of work is done on video, on the pitch, to make sure that those connections are built and they’re strong coming into the weekend, that we have that confidence to go into the game.

“Everyone is delighted to have contributed in the first two games. We’re always pushing the bar to keep improving each other and keep getting the best out of each other.

“And making sure we can be leaders in the back-line, helping out our 9s and 10s defensively, be big leaders defensively as well. It’s been positive, the mood has been good.”

Henshaw has played Wales on nine previous occasions, with a record of five wins and a draw in Dublin, and three defeats in Cardiff. He started the 2015 (23-16), 2017 (22-9), and 2021 (21-16) losses at the Principality Stadium, and was injured for the 2019 and 2023 trips to the Welsh capital.

He is anticipating a ‘huge test’ for the back-to-back Six Nations champions, and some added intricacies with Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt sure to want to shake things up as he begins his short interim spell in charge of Wales.

“It’s an incredibly tough place to play,” he said of the Principality Stadium, which will have a capacity crowd of 74,500 under the closed roof on Saturday afternoon. “We’ve had some great battles with Wales over the years.

“Such a passionate crowd, and when the crowd get behind them and if they get on a roll, they’re hard to stop. It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”

Asked about the Welsh coaching change and getting a feel for what Sherratt might bring to their play, Henshaw replied: “We can look at a bit of Cardiff footage. He was the head coach at Cardiff so you can look at little bits of their detail there.

“You can look the individuals they have selected, that they have brought into camp so…like Gareth Anscombe (who was added to the squad) is a threat, definitely.

“I think we just need to do our work and have a look at what they have produced,  certainly in Cardiff and then individually, and gauge what their threats are.”