ROBBIE HENSHAW IS on course to make his first appearance of the season when Leinster host Edinburgh in the Guinness Pro14 on Friday week.
The Ireland centre has been out of action since tearing his pectoral muscle off the bone during the Lions’ draw with the Hurricanes in June, an injury which required immediate surgical intervention.
But Henshaw hasn’t encountered any issues during his 12-week recovery programme and he’s in line to return next week when the eastern province face Richard Cockerill’s side at the RDS.
“It will be twelve weeks on Monday,” Henshaw said of his road to recovery. “Everything has gone to plan. There were no setbacks or hiccups.”
The 24-year-old’s comeback comes at a good time for Leinster with Leo Cullen’s side playing Munster at the Aviva on 7 October before back-to-back Champions Cup games against Montpellier and Glasgow Warriors.
Leinster’s options in midfield have been severely depleted in the early weeks of the season with Henshaw joined on the injured list by Garry Ringrose, Tom Daly and, up until last week, Noel Reid.
Cullen was forced to deploy the makeshift partnership of Isa Nacewa and Rory O’Loughlin in the centre for the first two games of the campaign, before Reid returned from a hand injury last weekend to score in the win over the Kings.
It remains to be seen whether Sean O’Brien will be used by Leinster next week while there’s no update on Jack McGrath, Tadhg Furlong or Johnny Sexton, who have all been training at Leinster’s UCD base while the squad are in South Africa.
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This is great news for Leinster and Ireland. He is,imo, the best inside centre in the land by quite a distance. He is a potent weapon in attack but is also a brilliant defender. His work rate without the ball is up there with the best in world rugby.
@Tom Reilly: some distance? McCloskey?
@Donal McGonigle: Henshaw has 29 Irish caps, McCloskey has 1…
@Donal McGonigle: The last line of my original post is the reason Schmidt will pick Henshaw all day over McCloskey. You can read between the lines ,can’t you?
@Adam Browne: @Tom Reilly: there was once a time when every Irish player had 1 cap. Darren cave had more caps than henshaw at one point, does that mean he was better? McCloskey will obviously get more caps during his career and if Schmidt has learnt from the last World Cup he knows he needs more than one decent player per position.
@Tom Reilly: McCloskey brings something different. The distance between them is the point I’m disputing not that Schmidt is more likely to choose henshaw.
@Donal McGonigle: Cave is 6 years older than Henshaw, Henshaw is younger than McCloskey. Not saying McCloskey is a bad player but he’s a good way off Henshaw.
Huge boost to have him back for Munster and Europe given Ringrose’s injury
@Cian Nolan: that’s pretty inaccurate
My three year old daughter recognises two players. Henshaw and Conor Murray. It’ll be good to have him back just to hear her butcher his name when she sees him.
Will be great to see him rekindle his partnership with Aki for Ireland in November …. will be the best Irish centre partnership since Bod and Darcy.
@Conor Greham: I personally hope the only green Aki ever wears is for Connacht. I don’t mind as long as it’s a centre partnership from Henshaw/Farrell/Ringrose/Scannell/McCloskey/Marshall/Payne. Yes Payne, the man that said ages ago that he’d love to play for Ireland. Aki said he didn’t care who he played for.
@Gary: when did he say that …. all he said was he hadnt made his mind up about a year a go and that it would be presumptious of him to think he would walk onto the squad as there are other good centres already in the squad. If anything he was being modest about himself and respectful to the players already in the squad. He is no different to any of the other players such as Payne Stander Strauss etc that have being capped ahead of him.
And he is better than any of the above centres mentioned.
@Gary: Look Aki has put his body on the line for Connacht. Why would he do any less for Ireland?
@Martin Quinn: fair point Martin , I suppose that’s the beauty of how people interpret things. I felt it was a player who wanted to be respectful to all incumbents and although we all knew he was going to declare for Ireland he wanted to give respect to those there ahead of him and not have the attention or limelight on him before it’s his time an opportunity to put the jersey on!
Excited about him an Henshaw playing centre in green again
I know that speed isn’t everything to be a top international centre but it would be fascinating to know what the speed over 5, 10 and 20 metres these various centres have. McCloskey, (Chris) Farrell and Stockdale (wherever he plays) don’t *look* very speedy but they do seem to surprise opponents (backs as well as forwards ?) and break the line, presumably using a combination of their size and speed. Marshall seems fast out of the blocks for a chunky guy. Ringrose seems fast out of the blocks too. Payne seems to glide into good lines. Henshaw looked fast as a #13 for Connacht.
@Glenbower: Agreed speed is not everything but footwork and passing is. Speeds real value is in defence and in support of a break. Breaking the line is really important to a team. A forward like in the All Black’s that can find a line break through a pass or can sell a dummy is gold. The more line breaks the more opportunities to score.