Some men freeze under the spotlight, some boys become men. Last Thursday we asked Robbie Henshaw what he was doing this time last year.
“English paper two – and that was more stressful,” he laughed, in disarmingly together fashion despite being named the fourth Irish international teenager of the professional era behind Rhys Ruddock, Luke Fitzgerald and Gordon D’Arcy.
Let’s deal with the past 15 months in a snapchat format.
March, 2012: the former Westmeath minor footballer leaves nobody in any doubt where his future lies in rugby by leading Marist College to the Connacht Schools Cup.
It was a really big deal in Athlone and western rugby circles but barely caused a ripple elsewhere. Some ventured he might even break into the Irish under-20s squad a year early.
But those close to the scene knew better. His agent is former Connacht scrumhalf Conor O’Loughlin.
“First time I saw him play really was when myself and John Muldoon went back to give a coaching session at Marist in 2009,” said O’Loughlin. “Robbie was about 15 years old then. I had heard through the school that he was a great prospect, so was interested to see first-hand what he was like.
“Even in that training session you could see he was a class act. All aspects of his game were excellent, so you could tell he was going to make the progression extremely quickly.
“He just seemed to be playing at a different level to everyone else as a schoolboy, very comfortable and confident in his game without trying to do too much.”
There are shades of the meteoric rise of Fitzgerald and D'Arcy. Teenage sensations both, along with Rob Kearney and Denis Hickie, they were the best schoolboy backs this reporter has witnessed dating back to the late 1980s.
Phenomenons
D'Arcy (1996-98) and Fitzgerald (2004-06) were phenomenons, excelling for three cup campaigns in the crazily over-hyped Friday Night Lights Leinster schools environment.
Henshaw’s raw talent mirrored the magic, dancing feet of that pair but, sure, it was only Connacht schools. Nobody expected a breakthrough like D’Arcy’s; only denied touring South Africa with Warren Gatland’s senior Irish tour of 1998 by the Leaving Certificate.
A centre by trade, there are strong indications Henshaw will end up there. Maybe not on this tour but at some stage, possibly in November.
Anyway, Gavin Duffy, Connacht’s long serving fullback and one-time great white hope, was injured last summer: “Myself and Kieran Marmion were pulled into the squad as cover and we got a start in the pre-season games and played well. Eric obviously saw something in us,” Henshaw recalled.
Eric Elwood saw something special, a spark of magic and physique that prompted him to say last October: “Robbie will play for Ireland. That is what I see in him. He has great ability, he is a good talent who can play at 13 or 15. I am a firm believer that if you are good enough you are old enough and Robbie is good enough.
“I’ve spoken to his mum and dad and told them, ‘Your son is a special player’ and, not only that, for a young man, at 19, who is only out of school, he is able to cope physically too.”
At 6ft 1in and 91 kgs, he will get bigger, and by the time Harlequins arrived in Galway for October’s revenge mission he was the established fullback.
The English champions weren’t long testing the unknown local kid. Their director of rugby may be the son of a Kerry legend, but their outhalf Ben Botica knew nothing of GAA high fielding.
Henshaw wasn’t long giving him a clinic. The oval ball barely a nuisance.
Biarritz came west in December. Seconds before running out on the field that night, having watched Dimitri Yachvili launch some ridiculously controlled yet soaring garryowens in the warm-up, he felt awfully like a kid fresh out of Marist.
"I was nervous, definitely at the start as there were some French internationals I'd watched on TV but once I got my hands on the ball I was fairly comfortable."
Sky rockets
Yachvili likes to send Imanol Harinordoquy up after those sky rockets. Any contact with him? "Once or twice, yeah." He smiled.
It finished 22-14 to Connacht. “We laid down a marker that night to show we could compete with the big teams.”
In January Declan Kidney called him into the Six Nations camp, as cover, considering Rob Kearney’s back problems and Simon Zebo already making a strong case to be considered the next option at 15.
That has changed this week, Zebo’s wheels have him on the left wing, with Henshaw the centrepiece of Ireland’s counter attack.
There is no concern about his role protecting the last line of defence. “That’s one of the main things I like about rugby, the physicality. I like tackling fellas. I like the hard hits. I enjoy going out to be physical on the pitch.
“I played a lot of Gaelic before rugby, that was my main sport. My club was Garrycastle but I got a transfer to Athlone at minor.”
It’s the calmness he exudes that is most impressive but no teenager gets through their maiden voyage without a few rough nights.
Muhammad Ali famously said: “They say when you get hit and hurt bad you see black lights – the black lights of unconsciousness.”
Henshaw’s world went momentarily dark in March. A Samoan slab of meat was pounding down the Sportsground dog-track and Henshaw came across to meet him.
“That was the Zebre game. Sinoti Sinoti. He was coming down fast and his shoulder bumped me in the bottom of the chin. A knockout. Biggest hit I had and I paid the price.
“But you have to put your body on the line. You can’t bow down.”
By then Connacht had seen the bright lights of his future, signing him up on a two-year contract to silence growing suggestions that Munster were poised to take him south.
“I was on an academy contract so I couldn’t move to other clubs because of that. My main focus is to stay in Connacht for the next two years, keep improving my game.”
The interview ends a little abruptly. The management, understandably, keen to keep their 19-year-old on the move. He’ll be 20 on Wednesday and will have a senior cap to go with single appearances for Ireland under-20 and the Wolfhounds.
Fullback for the present but 13 down the tracks. When that other guy finally pulls into the station.
