This is a fairly momentous summer in the life and times of 25-year-old Iain Henderson. Aside from the small matter of his first British & Irish Lions tour, two days after returning home he is getting married. Talk about cutting it fine.
Henderson's childhood sweetheart and fiancee is Suzanne Flanagan, a dentist who also hails from Belfast. They went to school together at Belfast Royal Academy, and started dating when he was 17. Last summer he proposed on a beach in Miami and their marriage is to be held on July 14th, outside Ballynahinch.
“I think the Ulster boys are getting back in to Belfast at about 8pm on the 12th of July and I’m getting married at noon on the 14th of July. I somehow managed to cut that as fine as possible.
“As far as I’m aware all the wedding planning is going very smoothly. Outside of that I’m glad to be sleeping during the day at home so I don’t have to worry about any of that. It will definitely be tight enough getting back home jetlagged and then going on honeymoon over to Singapore.
“So that week between the 12th and 16th will definitely be sleepless. I don’t know whether I’ll be tired or not. I’ll have to just wait and see how that comes, and hopefully it will all work out fine.”
His fiancee will come out to New Zealand before the end of the tour, as will his parents and in-laws.
Surprise outcome
It's been an interesting couple of weeks off the pitch as well as on it. Henderson has been rooming again this week with Maro Itoje, which has afforded these two young locks a chance to continue their political discussions.
Itoje is studying politics, and the recent surprise outcome of the general election in the UK has prompted him to pump Henderson for some more information on political landscape in Northern Ireland.
Asked if he’d ever had such conversations before with another rugby player, Henderson admits: “I have not. I’ve never had it with another rugby player. In our initial discussion, he was talking about politics and I was talking about Northern Irish politics, and our current inability to form a government. Then in the last week or so we have discovered that the Conservatives and the DUP will be forming together to get rid of this hung parliament so to speak.
“So I was just explaining to him again this week some of the – I’m trying to choose my words very carefully – some brief summation of Northern Ireland in terms of Stormont and the politics that goes on in it.”
The analogy with a Lions squad comprising four countries seemed apt. “I don’t know. It might be a little better run, a Lions squad that is,” quips Henderson.
This will be Henderson's first start since the tour opener against the Provincial Barbarians last Saturday week in Whangarei, albeit like the frontrow of Joe Marler, Rory Best and Kyle Sinckler, Henderson was on the bench for the defeat to the Blues.
I'm sure if you were to ask every player if they wanted to start all 10 games on this tour I don't think anyone would say yes
Hence, this has not been especially frustrating for Henderson.
"Not hugely, because you're on the same schedule as everyone else. Even if you're not starting you're still preparing for a game. And if you're on the bench you're still preparing in a very similar way because, just ask Johnny Sexton, sometimes you have to come on early and you just have to be ready to come on at any stage.
“So the whole preparation up to the game is exactly the same, you have to do the same training as the team three or four days prior to that so you’re clued in and you’re still getting all the same reps as everyone and you’re still involved as heavily in the session.
“In some aspects, it is frustrating because you want to start and you want to get game time under your belt and progress. However, I’m sure if you were to ask every player if they wanted to start all 10 games on this tour I don’t think anyone would say yes.
“It’s vital to get some rest and recuperation between games, ideally maybe another in between those two would have been nice, but the coaches have got tough decisions about who to pick and how they want the rest of the tour to pan out. We have complete trust in the coaches and what they’ve been selected to do and what their plans are, so we’ll leave it up to them.”
Upped the ante
Nevertheless, the Lions' restorative 12-3 win over the Crusaders last Saturday has upped the ante for these starting Lions, not least in the secondrow given the displays of Alun Wyn Jones and George Kruis, not to mention his roomie off the bench.
“Yeah, definitely,” says Henderson. “We wanted to start and just build in performances. It was brilliant not conceding any tries. Ideally, we would have liked to have finished off a few more opportunities but it was fantastic for the boys out there; a real solid defensive line and a few good opportunities in attack and we’ll look to take them between now and the end of the series and keep on building on that attacking performance.
“The ante is going to build into the Test. Not only are we getting closer to those big Test games but people are wanting to perform in these big games to put their hands up for spots. Not only in the games, but in training as well, everything’s been upped and a massive emphasis has been put on effort.”
Under the closed roof, Henderson and Best could be good for each other, and they could be seen having a quiet coffee at a café on the Octagon in downtown Dunedin on Monday.
“Leading up to leaving for the tour, a lot of the Ulster boys’ season had finished early, earlier than we would have liked. Rory and I were in training together and I think it’s his mental toughness that comes out in fitness more than anything; him running the legs off me and other boys.
“He’s not exactly the fastest person, however, as he says, he’s got forwards, backwards, and idle. He’ll push himself and keep on going and you’ll not get him stopped. I’d be running with him and I can take off quicker than him, but he’ll keep on pushing past me.”
