Iain Henderson: Looming selection not an excuse for lacklustre display

Stand-in captain Iain Henderson insists looming World Cup selection was not a factor in Ireland's underwhelming performance in scraping past Samoa.

Ireland were far from convincing in rain-soaked Bayonne but ultimately emerged with a 13th consecutive win on the eve of Andy Farrell naming his 33-man squad for France.

Second-half tries from Conor Murray and Rob Herring earned an unconvincing 17-13 success after Samoa battled back to lead following Jimmy O’Brien’s early score.

Six Ireland players are set for disappointment on Sunday afternoon when Farrell announces his final squad.

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Yet Henderson, who skippered a mix-and-match line-up at Stade Jean Dauger, does not feel that situation contributed to a disjointed display which almost ended in an upset.

"No and if it did it’s probably one of the adversities that 'Faz’ (Farrell) would like us to be tested by," said the lock.

"That’s not the most difficult thing we’re going to face over the next number of weeks.

"It’s an incredibly strong group of guys and the guys who’ve been waiting to find out their fate have probably carried themselves as well as you could have expected them to throughout training.

"The guys who are nervous about selection, who might be carrying that anxiety have trained well, everyone’s been on time, been as diligent as possible throughout the reviews, staying on top of stuff.

"It’s been a well-prepped Test week for us, so hats off to those guys who’ve been prepping so well.

"I think it’s not that side of things that