William Iain Henderson (born 21 February 1992) is a professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who plays as a

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

for

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

club

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

and the Ireland national team, and has been selected for two tours with the British & Irish Lions. He has been the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of Ulster since 2019, and captained Ireland in 2021 and 2023.

Early life

Born in

Craigavon, County Armagh Craigavon ( ) is a town in north County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It was a planned settlement, begun in 1965, and named after the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland: James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon. It was intended to be the heart of ...

, he was educated at Belfast Royal Academy,"Who is Iain Henderson: Ten things you should know about the Ireland lock"
Rugby World, 10 June 2021 playing in the school's 1st XV that made the Ulster Schools' Cup final in 2010. In July 2010, he was selected for the Ulster/Leinster team against Connacht/Munster in the exhibition game that opened the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...

in Dublin. He was due to study actuarial studies at

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

in Edinburgh,Jonathan Bradley
"Henderson has taken an unlikely path to lead Ulstermen"
''Belfast Telegraph'', 16 November 2019 but switched to

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

after he was offered a place at the Ulster Rugby Academy.

Professional career

He was awarded the £2,000 Jack Kyle Academy Bursary by the Ulster Rugby Official Supporters Club in December 2011, despite missing the first half of the 2011–12 season with a broken leg sustained playing for the Ulster Ravens. He made his debut for the senior Ulster team in April 2012, and signed his first professional contract in October 2012. He represented Ireland at U19 level and at

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA S ...

level, including at the 2012 U20 World Championships. He made his senior Ireland debut in November 2012 in the defeat to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in Dublin. He was named Young Player of the Year at the 2013 Ulster Rugby Awards, and Personality of the Year in the 2021 Awards. He was part of the Ulster team that made the 2013 Pro12 Grand Final and the 2020 Pro14 Grand Final. He made his 100th appearance for Ulster against

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

in the European Rugby Champions Cup in January 2019, and was named Ulster's captain, replacing the retiring Rory Best, ahead of the 2019–20 season. With Ireland, he won the

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament conte ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, the Grand Slam in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, and the Triple Crown in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, and played in the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. He captained Ireland for the first time in February 2021. He was selected for the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

for their 2017 tour to New Zealand and 2021 tour to South Africa. Henderson's central contract with the IRFU was due to expire after the

2023 Rugby World Cup The 2023 Rugby World Cup () was the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams. It took place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening game ...

, and there was speculation that he might move abroad. He signed an extension in 2023, keeping him with Ulster and Ireland for a further two seasons. He was called up to

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

's preliminary 42-man squad ahead of the

, and captained the side in the warm-up game against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

on 5 August 2023.

Honours

; Ireland * 5×

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

* 2× Grand Slam:

* 3× Triple Crown:

References

External links

* *
Ulster Rugby profileUnited Rugby Championship profileIreland profileBritish & Irish Lions profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Iain 1992 births Living people People educated at the Belfast Royal Academy Rugby union players from County Armagh Ulster Rugby players Ireland international rugby union players Ireland Wolfhounds international rugby union players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Ireland Rugby union locks Rugby union flankers 2015 Rugby World Cup players 2019 Rugby World Cup players 2023 Rugby World Cup players Rugby union players from Belfast