Iain Henderson pleased with Ireland's 'more progressive' training camp

All going to plan, the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France will represent a third World Cup for Iain Henderson.

Of the current 42-man training squad, only Keith Earls, Conor Murray, Cian Healy and captain Johnny Sexton can beat him for World Cup experience. All will be hoping that their best is saved for 2023.

With this being Henderson's third World Cup campaign, likewise it's his third World Cup training camp. Through the first four weeks, he believes this has been the best one yet.

Specifically, the nature of the training has pleased the players. The strength and conditioning work has to be done, but all the while the ball will be involved. Running for the sake of running is a relic of pre-seasons past.

"It's been great to be a part of, and it definitely feels more progressive than previous World Cups," Henderson told the RTÉ Rugby podcast at the launch of Ireland's new Canterbury Rugby World Cup jerseys.

The pre-season schedule is broken up into blocks. On 19 June the squad got down to work at the HPC in Dublin for two weeks of training, before heading their separate ways for a week.

They've been back on the pitch this week at the Sport Ireland campus, and will stay there for another week before splitting up once again for a down-week. Don't call it a 'rest-week' though.

"The week off is a week training on your own, it's not a 'week off'!" he laughs.

"We go back and split into smaller groups with our own GPS units and our own gym sessions. Most of the guys get away somewhere in small groups and will do that training together. It’s always easy to put yourself through the paces when someone is with you."

Henderson's previous World Cups in 2015 and 2019 ended in similar fashion with quarter-final disappointment, Joe Schmidt's sides