Bruised nose aside there's a pristine "head boy" look about Chris Henry and in his voice desperation. Now that the Irish flanker has had more prolonged success with Ireland, he's not about to give it up so quickly. The desperation is the want of more.
If the player to emerge from the Six Nations more embellished than when he went in was Ulster winger Andrew Trimble, Henry wasn't far behind. School prefect looks or not, he knows how to get his hands dirty. Saracens provide another chance for the flanker to do just that and again to smack up on the success opiate.
Desperate to win
"I'm desperate to win," he says. "Obviously the last two months have been fantastic. But that has been put to bed. Ulster have moved forward and no one can deny that. But we haven't won anything yet. Winning with Ireland was unbelievable and I want to get that again. But we've got to dig deep and maybe go places we haven't been to before."
Henry has the benefit of usually playing how he speaks. His role in the kick, punch, tug, roll and rip zone of the backrow may go unrewarded as often as the barging runs of a fit Sean O’Brien draw gasps. Both play the same position, just differently. But honesty fills their performances and when Henry talks of Ulster’s lack of aggression and discipline last week against Cardiff being an aberration, others listen.
“Our intensity was miles off, at least 30-40 per cent under par,” he says. “We weren’t hitting rucks they way we usually do. Our ferocity and ball carrying . . . you can go across the board. It was one of those ones where we talked about being disciplined and our penalty count was atrocious. It was error upon error, something that we are usually very good at.
“Individual performances . . . a lot of people put up their hand and said it wasn’t right. It was disappointing. Look at what happened last year with the Leinster performance and Sarries, it’s a kick up the butt for us.
“I’ve no doubt every collision with Sarries will be up there. They are going to bring it to us and we’ve to match them and more.”
Yesterday the ground at Ravenhill was peppered with workmen and machines trying to get the new stand finished for the Saturday opening. They were hanging doors, arranging plastic on the seating, pouring concrete into holes.
New dreams
A new stadium, new dreams. In the wake of the Six Nations triumph that also means enhanced national wellbeing. But just as that can't win matches, nor can one poor performance last week loose Ulster the Heineken Cup.
“Big players stand up in big games and I look around and we’ve got big players,” he says. He has always been one in Ulster and now further afield.
“This is it now,” he adds with an air of finality. “We had the review before we left Cardiff. We put it to bed. We can’t get negative and slump just because of one poor performance.”
