Soft-spoken Henderson tries to keep expectations hushed

As one of the coaches at GHA, the 53-times-capped Scotland centre, who made his debut when his compatriots trounced Ireland 32-10 in 2001, is still strutting his stuff on the pitch every weekend in pursuit of a precious play-off place for the Braidholm brigade. But there is nothing easy about the challenge facing Henderson and his charges as the season reaches its climax.

They currently lie third in the Scottish National League, but if they can win their last two matches against bottom club Hillhead-Jordanhill on Saturday and Dundee HSFP on March 28, then GHA will have guaranteed themselves a crack at advancement to the BT Premiership. But, as you might expect from Henderson, he isn't getting ahead of himself. This SNL, after all, is one tough competition.

"Selkirk have been a notch above everybody else, and deserve to have won the championship, but it is very tough between the rest and most of the sides are capable of beating anybody else, so you have to learn how to grind out victories," said Henderson. "We were pushed all the way by Jed-Forest on Saturday and they were leading 10-0 at half-time and you could sense the anxiety spreading among some of our supporters. But we kept battling away and the lads got the win eventually, even though it was closer [12-10] than we would have liked.

"Hopefully, we can look back on that result as being one of the games which helped propel us back into the Premiership. But there is still an awful lot of rugby to be played before we can even start thinking about that."

"One of the best features of this season has been the improvement and the consistency of our squad. They are a young group of players, but they have been egging each other on, and it is always encouraging when you notice there is an increasing amount of competition between the guys. We will be aiming to keep our winning sequence going against Hillhead - but they have been showing a lot of character in recent weeks - and then it might boil down to a trip to Dundee. Never easy."

Henderson can be forgiven for not casting his gaze too far ahead. His skill lies with a rugby ball, not a crystal ball. But even he is aware of the growing possibility that if GHA do advance to a play-off, it might be against Glasgow Hawks, the club with whom he used to shine.

One immediately sensed he would rather avoid such a scenario, and prefer the west of the country to have a brace of representatives in the top flight for the 2015-16 campaign. Yet, if push comes to shove, Henderson isn't on the grassroots circuit for sentimental reasons.

"GHA have been in the Premiership before and suffered a dip, but that is clearly where we want to be, in terms of testing ourselves at a higher level, and helping attract more players and sponsors in the future," said Henderson. "Glasgow Warriors have done a terrific job in raising the profile of rugby throughout the city, so it would obviously be good if we had two club sides in the Premiership. But - and it's a big but - if we end up meeting the Hawks in a play-off, only one of can be successful and I absolutely want that to be us."

It feels like a long time since Henderson was scoring Scotland's fourth try in that demolition job on Ireland at just 21. Yet, 14 years later, he is still quietly enthusing and evangelising in his own unique way.

"Saturday's going to be a big occasion, but we want to put in a good performance against Hillhead and set ourselves up for a grandstand finish," said Henderson. They remain a work in progress, but it must benefit them to have such a model professional in their ranks.

TEAM OF THE WEEK

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TALKING POINT

Glasgow Hawks have two games left to escape the prospect of a relegation play-off. They probably need to win both. Can they do it?