Six Nations: 'Fear' gone from Ireland pre-match preparation, says Henderson

Henderson says the appointment of Andy Farrell as head coach has ushered in a new mentality in the Ireland camp

Ireland lock Iain Henderson says there is a new spirit of openness about the squad's pre-match preparation under new head coach Andy Farrell.

Farrell succeeded Joe Schmidt in the role after the World Cup and led his side to a 19-12 win over Scotland in his first game in charge on Saturday.

"Before the guys might have been a wee bit tentative about who they went and asked questions to," said Henderson.

"For fear of people thinking they don't know their detail, didn't know stuff."

Henderson added: "Now there's a very open learning system that has been put in place to ensure guys are free to get information or give clarity whenever they want.

"There's a different mentality around the place - a different relationship between players and coaches and a different relationship between players and players, going over stuff together."

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'A lot of things changing'

The Ulster second row explains that the changing culture in the Ireland camp is aimed at helping players push each other on to greater efforts as they prepare to play Wales in Dublin in their second Six Nations match on Saturday.

"Everything that is done is done in a real positive manner to ensure we're getting the best out of each other," he said.

"If I go to a player and ask him for help or he comes to me and asks me for help, we're doing it to make each other better and ultimately to get a better result at the weekend. Everyone knows that.

"A lot of different things are changing and there are lots of different systems in place. All the guys are adapting pretty well and training has been pretty smooth.

"The guys are excited to be out there, maybe doing something slightly different."

'It's really open' - Healy

Prop Cian Healy agreed that the Ireland players were enjoying "picking everyone's brains a little bit" in a desire to get their detail right.

"It's really open. You walk across to a coach and ask them to sit down with you for a few minutes and go through this with me and help me get some clarity," he said.

"It's the same with players, grabbing each other and sitting at a computer or with a notebook saying 'what would you do here?' or 'what can I do to stop that?'

"We've had a different kind of review process too as we've broken it up more into different areas. A lot has been put onto the mini-groups to look after the smaller details of the scrum, the lineout and the breakdown."