Henderson ready to fire

The room is the usual player's mess. Used training gear strewn around the floor, the TV half-on in the background. A break from the monotony is clearly the crossword, which is heavily filled in except for two unsolved clues.

The solutions to the previous day's crossword had provided the one missing answer from Tuesday, which read: Picayune. "I haven't a clue what that means and if you've any influence pass on my complaint," he says, and he has a point.

Coming straight off a try-scoring performance in a Cup semi-final win for Wasps, and looking ahead to only his second Irish start of the season on Saturday after an impressive replacement's cameo against the Scots, Rob Henderson is in good form.

His try helped to spark a 35-21 English Cup semi-final win over Gloucester and so ensure a second successive appearance in the Twickenham decider after last year's defeat to Saracens.

Warren Gatland publicly congratulated Henderson yesterday for scoring his first try in three years, though as the Wasps centre points out it was actually about his 20th in that time-span, just his first, curiously, at home ground Loftus Road.

The final against Newcastle comes a week before the Irish squad's departure for Australia, and a day before Wasps play the last of a six-game league run-in - potentially critical too as they are currently sixth in the chase for one of the six European Cup places on offer for the English clubs. No rest for the wicked.

The easy-going, happy, gap-toothed dyed blond is content with his lot. In good form and shaping up for his and most players' biggest season yet, he says he's just "trying to keep things going, keep the mind active - The Irish Times simplex crossword helps - and all going well carry on in good form through the Australian tour, if selected, and then hopefully into the World Cup."

For the moment though, the most pressing concern is Ireland's game against the Italians and a surprisingly rare start this season. He just missed out on the World Cup squad of 22 and was on the bench against South Africa. "I was playing quite well and disappointed not to be involved in the World Cup qualifiers. I lost a bit of form after that - I think that was a mental thing - and then after Christmas turned my form around again."

Despite starring as a sub against France and Scotland, his one start was effectively as a midfield bystander watching the rampant English pack at Lansdowne Road. He played well against France (even taking the man of the match award) and against Scotland too. Fortunately, he says, he found a couple of gaps. Created them out of nothing more like.

The second of those barnstorming breaks prompted Bill McLaren to say "like a buffalo on stampede". To which Henderson replies: "I'm not quite sure how to take that. I've never seen a blond buffalo."

That neither of the breaks came to anything tangible, and one saw him go to ground, prompted some observers to venture that Henderson is no more than another midfield bosh merchant. Closer examination of the video shows that his failure to find any support when breaking up the right touch-line was far more the fault of the support, while the diagonal burst up the middle from well behind the gain line inside the Irish 22 did see him unleash the supporting backs.

"It's very easy to pigeon hole players. I've got a bit of a reputation for being a bosh man because certainly my club side use me to set up second phase ball up the middle. Now if I'm being used to do that then there's not much chance of me getting an opportunity to use my hands. Though I don't dislike the physical confrontation, obviously I like playing the other facets of the game."

Judging by the way he was frequently employed up the middle in training yesterday, it's a weapon Ireland are likely to use on Saturday. The reluctant bosher actually enjoys spreading the ball through the hands more than anything else, and a glimpse of this talent was shown against Canada last year when his instinctively flicked pass put Kevin Maggs over in the corner.

Without being a flyer, Henderson is also deceptively explosive over the first 10 or 15 metres which, as he says, "is what you want from midfield, break five or 10 metres and then offload".

Until now there have been glimpses of the real Henderson, if mostly confined to substitute cameos when he's irreverently grasped the game in his own inimitable way. The flip side of this coin is that he also gets labelled as an "impact" player off the bench.

"The big factor is to gain a starting place. If you want to gain the respect of the Irish rugby public then you have to be holding down a place. With the players in my position that's very difficult. But I've got an opportunity this Saturday; I'm playing well and with any luck who knows?"

When last interviewed by this paper a couple of seasons ago, the then 24-year-old reckoned he'd be retired by 29. Now 26, has he revised his opinion. "No, I don't think so, although it's definitely going to be harder to carry on into your mid-30s playing top level rugby week-in and week-out."

"The older you get, the harder you have to work but the easier the game gets because you've more experience. If you blend that with a physical toughness and a mental edge, then there's always a place for you in the game. There's a couple of things you can't teach, and that's experience and size."

With another couple of seasons on his contract at Wasps, Henderson's immediate future is clearly mapped out for him - indeed he marries long-time girlfriend Angie in August of next year.

The suspicion lurks that he's a better player than he's shown, or been allowed to, up until now and certainly you sense a frustration that he hasn't been able to nail down that national number 12 shirt. With that in mind, this Saturday is a huge opportunity for the buffalo to start stampeding from the start.

The Italian squad will train at Sydney Parade at five o'clock today.