70 days have passed since Robbie Henshaw was pulled off with a shoulder injury during the second-half of Ireland’s Six Nations win over Italy in February.
Henshaw spent 70 days sitting on the sidelines. He watched a Grand Slam come and go. He saw a quarter-final with Saracens pass and it looked as if he was going to miss the business end of possibly Irish Rugby’s greatest ever season.
If Munster defeat Racing in the other Champions Cup semi-final on Sunday that particular case is all but closed but then there’s the superficial argument of who the best player has been from the best season.
Is it the try scoring phenomenon Jacob Stockdale? Is it Johnny Sexton and his 45 metre game winning drop goals? Is it Conor Muray? Is it Dan Leavy, James Ryan or Keith Earls?
There’s arguments that can be made for a number of different players and Henshaw’s name would have certainly been at the forefront of that conversation had it not have been for his dislocated shoulder.
Absolutely incredible that @robhenshaw is back playing today after a full shoulder reconstruction 10 weeks ago. To dispel any rumors it was a lesser injury it wasn’t! Massive credit to him, the Leinster medical staff and the surgeon for being so cutting edge (yep excuse the pun) pic.twitter.com/lD7DLrKu4k
— Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) April 21, 2018
A full shoulder reconstruction – during a Six Nations campaign no less – can derail a season for the most durable of players but 70 days away from rugby, 70 days spent in hospitals, gyms, physiotherapists, the couch and the stands can see elements of rust creep into the games of the best of players.
Robbie Henshaw can be considered among the very best this season and in Leinster’s 38-16 win over Scarlets on Saturday he showed exactly why.
Leinster senior coach Stuart Lancaster said during the build up to the match that he’s never seen Henshaw in better condition during his time at the club and that the 24-year-old set personal bests in both speed and fitness tests at training. It showed too.
There was a period in the first-half where Henshaw barreled his through the Scarlets defence and over the gainline before realigning and achieving the same result again a few phases later.
Standing at 6 ft 3 and weighing in at over 16 stone, Henshaw certainly has the frame and size to be effective as a crash ball runner, but it wasn’t just his ability to burst his way through tackles that was impressive, it was the choice of lines that he chose to run that allowed him the time and space to consistently find his way over the gainline.
If Lancaster had zero doubt over Henshaw’s physical fitness there had to be a slither of concern about his ability to adjust to the pace of a Scarlets team that ran Leinster ragged last season.
Leinster were a completely different team to the outfit that were smoked at the RDS in the PRO12 semi-final last year but Henshaw looked the same as he had before his injury; in both attack and defence.
He made the right reads, tackled effectively, looked to offload the ball, held the ball carrier up until support arrived and had no problems going straight over the top of the ball to attempt a pilfer, or latching himself on to his forward runners when his presence was required in closer quarters.
The Leinster and Irish Rugby S&C and medical staff must be given huge credit here in light of just how quickly Garry Ringrose was brought up to speed last month when he was thrown into the mix with limited minutes against Scotland in the Six Nations, but both Ringrose and Henshaw should be commended and praised for their complete lack of rust or signs of fatigue in their respective returns.
It’s one thing to show you’re physically capable at training but to do it in front of a packed Aviva Stadium against quality opposition in games that really matter is another thing entirely.
At 23 and 24 respectively, both players should be able to form a very fruitful partnership for both Leinster and Ireland over the next decade as they continue to grow and improve.
The question with Leinster and their core group of young players is not so much how far they’ve come in a relatively short space of time, it’s more of a question of how far they can go, what heights they can scale and how much they can achieve?
We’ll get a better grasp of that question at the Champions Cup final in Bilbao next month and an even greater understanding over the seasons and years to come.
Exciting times for a truly excellent group of players.
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