As one sports star with a celebrity chanteuse attachment exits the international stage, today we welcome back another. David Beckham got to 99 caps and still triggers a debate over whether he fulfilled his talent; Gavin Henson has been playing international rugby for nearly seven years, yet his caps number only 23. Unfulfilled talent? Not even a debate.
In a much criticised book two years ago, Henson wrote of the instinctive insecurity that younger players unleash in him. “I suppose it’s a desire to try and set the standards rather than allow someone new to come along and set them for you,” he wrote by way of self-analysis. That he has not started a Six Nations match since the book was published emphasises the gaping extent to which this desire has been unfulfilled.
Today, with another new Six Nations tournament about to begin, we greet the latest new start for Henson wondering if fulfilment will at last be his. Warren Gatland, the new Wales coach, has said that Henson has a clean slate, although it can hardly have helped that the day after Gatland’s appointment Henson was involved a widely publicised drunken incident on a train. Wide publicity is de rigueur for the athlete-celebrity, which may explain why one rugby website went to the trouble to compile a list of “Ten ways to break Gavin Henson”.
The use of words, here, is interesting. If there is one coach in world rugby who understands him best it is Sean Holley, who has known Henson since his own playing days alongside his father at Maesteg and has, for five years, been his backs coach with Ospreys. And if there is one scrap of advice Holley would give the Wales management, it is that attempting to “break” Henson would be the wrong approach.
Holley is one of three of Henson’s coaches who spoke to The Times about the psychology of the frustrated star and how to divine the magic that too often remains within. What was fascinating was that none of them, even Sir Clive Woodward, who happily concedes that his Lions tenure did not bring out Henson’s best, blames the Charlotte Church connection.
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This was a reminder that Henson was independent, headstrong and prone to storming out of Wales squads long before he became a front-page commodity. Although this did not stop Scott Johnson, who was assistant Wales coach for the 2005 grand-slam year, counselling Henson. “I said to him, ‘You’ve got to make a decision. What do you want to be known as, a great player or a superstar?’”
And neither are we suggesting that his media status has made his progress any easier. “It has been quite traumatic,” Holley said. “I think he has done extremely well to come through it.” Which suggests that rugby might have lost him? “With personalities like Gavin, that is always an issue.”
The best understanding of Henson may be an analysis of his successes and comparative failures. “I had absolutely no issues with Gavin at all,” Woodward says of the 2005 Lions tour. “And I thought he was an exceptional player. But I don’t think he’s a very communicative person. You’ve got to know him very well to get him to come out of himself and the Lions scenario is so quick, you don’t have time to build those sort of relationships. He just went into his shell a bit, which is no crime - but it’s not the way forward on a Lions tour.
“The best players are good talkers and I’m sure he’d be a lot better with coaches he is with week in, week out. I can’t believe he can be such a good player and not be like that.”
Compare that with Johnson’s recollection of the 2005 grand-slam year and the dynamics within that team. “Everyone sees the individual, that’s the obvious part,” he says. “But Gavin plays his best rugby when he feels a team man. In that season, the winning penalty against England aside, he wasn’t always the limelight man. Gavin was used to playing 10, the superstar role, but he played 12 and he made a very good foil for Stephen Jones inside him and Tom Shanklin at 13. It was no coincidence that the two players either side of him had great tournaments.
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“And he was the second-string kicker behind Jones, too. People thought he wouldn’t handle that, but he could. It wasn’t all about him. That’s a team ethic. We chose a sport with camaraderie in its culture; that might not be so natural for Gavin, but he had it that season, whether he knew it or not.”
For all that Henson presents himself as a personality of calm inner confidence who never has trouble sleeping the night before a match, it is clear that he is brittle, sensitive and needs to feel comfortable around a team, as he did in 2005.
So this is the advice from Holley to the Wales management: “Everyone always wants a piece of Gavin, to tell him what they want from him. But to badger him is counter-productive. What I’ve learnt over five years is that if you trust him, let him do his thing, you’ll get the best out of him. Direction, badgering - that doesn’t come naturally to him. As soon as you understand that he understands the game and that he doesn’t need direction, that’s when you’ll see his talents shine.”
Is this a player requiring special treatment? Yes. Does he want to feel that he is getting special treatment? No.
So, is this remotely to do with Church? “He never brings that to work with him, he’s truly professional,” Holley says. And Johnson says: “As a player and a trainer, he delivered everything I wanted.”
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All of which are very nice and complimentary, although no one is kidding themselves over Henson here. “Gavin’s two years more mature than when I was with him,” Johnson says. “But I’m sure that when he looks back, he’ll be disappointed he let those years slip. Great player or superstar? He’s old enough now to decide.”
Holley says: “I’ve noticed a steelier determination in his comeback this year. International rugby is something he craves. There’s a feeling of unfinished business about Gavin now.”
Unfinished? Some would argue that he has barely started. Henson is 25. There is a great international career out there, if only he and those around him can work out how to locate it.
For better or worse?
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