KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Warrior Ian Henderson expects Manly to clamp down on chances for his trademark dummy-half darts in their National Rugby League grand final qualifier tomorrow night.
Henderson's robust metre-eating runs were again in evidence in the Warriors' 30-13 semifinal defeat of the Sydney Roosters in Auckland last weekend.
He added a try for good measure at Mt Smart Stadium to take his tally to seven in his first season with the club.
But Henderson was anticipating having less room to manoeuvre at the Sydney Football Stadium, saying the Sea Eagles were likely to offer tighter marker defence than the Roosters.
"The Roosters are a great team, but they weren't quite on at the weekend," he said.
"I think Manly will be. There are a lot of big forwards. They have a lot of good wrestle and good defence in them. I think they will definitely be tighter and harder."
Henderson, like teammates Steve Price (with the Bulldogs), Ruben Wiki (Canberra) and Brent Tate (Brisbane), already has a title under his belt.
His came not in the NRL, but in the English Super League.
After brief spells with the Roosters and Parramatta, the English-born Australian-raised Scotland international joined Bradford in 2005.
He made an immediate impact with the Yorkshire side, playing in every match over the rest of that season, including in the Bulls' grand final victory.
Henderson said making an NRL grand final would probably eclipse that feat for him personally.
"I think so, because this is where I am at the moment," he said.
"At the time, Super League thing was a great thing but I've moved on from that. I'm at the Warriors now and obviously that's where I want to get to."
Henderson was largely an unknown in Auckland when his signing with the Warriors was announced.
But he has made such an impression that he has appeared in all but one of the club's 26 matches this season.
He put his form down to hard work and a clear idea of what he had to do.
"I've probably just been working hard at training and going to the game with a clear head and knowing what goals I wanted to achieve," he said.
"It's hard to put it down to an exact something. I just like to compete and try hard, and this is the result."
Henderson will get back-up off the bench from utility Lance Hohaia, who will share the dummy-half duties after making way at fullback with Wade McKinnon's return from suspension.
The pair will be up against Manly's own hooker rotation of Matt Ballin and Heath L'Estrange, whom Henderson described as two outstanding operators.
"They're very smart and they have a lot of match awareness," he said.
"You don't get many errors out of them and they're good in defence, and they're both good attributes for the team."
- NZPA
