ULSTER forward Iain Henderson will miss Ireland’s Six Nations campaign after being ruled out for the rest of the season.
The province’s director of rugby Les Kiss said last month he feared the versatile forward’s hamstring injury would rule him out for the remainder of the campaign. Henderson suffered the injury in the PRO12 win over Edinburgh in December, a game which also robbed them of Dan Tuohy, Peter Nelson and Darren Cave.
Hopes remained that Henderson would make a quicker recovery, but Ulster head coach Neil Doak confirmed on Tuesday he would not feature again for club or country this season: “Hendy… next year. He won’t be about for a while,” he said.
Ulster had hoped Craig Gilroy, who missed the St Stephen’s Day win over Connacht and last Saturday’s defeat by Munster, would recover in time for their European date with Oyannax on Sunday. But Doak confirmed he and the rest of their longer-term injury victims are unlikely to make it.
“Everybody’s much of a muchness. We had hoped Gilly [Gilroy] would be ready for this game. There’s a few guys sitting in the wings that we’ll have to see during the week," he added.
“The long-termers, we’re not going to have any of them involved this week, which is disappointing. We had hoped we’d have got a few of them back for the first of these three games, but it’s not looking likely.”
After four successive wins in December, Ulster were brought back to earth as their failure to translate their first-half dominance into points swung the door ajar for Munster. Anthony Foley’s side, thanks to the boot of Ian Keatley, took advantage in the second-half as they ended a run of five straight defeats themselves. The defeat saw them fall out of the play-off places in the PRO12, behind Munster.
The domestic action takes a back seat for a while now, though, as Les Kiss’ team prepare for a triple-header of European action. They travel to Stade Charles Mathon this weekend to face the Top 14 side, with the original fixture having been postponed as a result of the Paris terrorist attacks last November. The game, which would have been Oyannax’s first ever in the Champions Cup, was called off just an hour and-a-half before kick-off.
Back-to-back wins over Toulouse have ignited Ulster’s hopes in the competition but, even against the side bottom of the pool, Doak believes any expectations they will take 10 points from the two games is a dangerous mindset.
“If you look at the games against Oyannax over the last couple of weeks, teams have felt they can throw the ball around and have been loose with it," he said.
“What has stood us in good stead over the last number of weeks, especially against Toulouse, is that we’ve looked after the ball, kept our structures and were patient. That’s going to be a key aspect this weekend.
“Ultimately, if we win the next three games we’ll be there or thereabouts, either as top of the pool or a best runner-up. We’ve just got to focus on getting our structures right. If that [a bonus point] comes from us keeping our structures and discipline right, then that’s brilliant for us. We know they’re a dangerous outfit. They’ve done really well to qualify for Europe for this season.”
Ulster will face pool leaders Saracens in between. Despite their blistering form, which continued with an emphatic Premiership win over third-placed Leicester at the weekend, Doak retains hope of topping the pool.
“Obviously, Saracens paint a different picture. They’ve been going really well this year. We know they’ll be three tight games and, ideally, we want to win all three of them," he added.
“That’ll give us the best opportunity of getting out of the pool. We know it’s going to be difficult. Two European games on the bounce is tough on the bodies, tough on the minds, with the level of intensity.
“Three in-a-row is going to be a different challenge for us, but we have to try and make sure we look after ourselves post-games and recover as best we can.”
