“You could say patience is somet hing I’m good at”
PATIENCE IS a virtue, goes the proverb, so Rob Herring must be extremely virtuous.
Born in Cape Town, the hooker qualifies for Ireland through his mother’s family, who hail from Belfast, and made his Test debut from the bench in Argentina in the summer of 2014, just two years after joining Ulster. However, he didn’t double that tally until facing South Africa in Dublin in November 2017.
Then at provincial level, Herring spent close to a decade as understudy to Rory Best, who played into his 37th year
Yet the past year has marked a change in fortunes for Herring. He’s now Ulster’s first-choice hooker, scoring a try as the province beat Edinburgh to reach the Guinness Pro14 final, and is set to hit the 200-appearances mark over the next few months. At international level, he was Andy Farrell’s starting hooker for the three Six Nations matches Ireland were able to play before Covid struck.
As he gets ready for the return of Test rugby, and those postponed matches against Italy and
