Gavin Henson – “At last a coach is playing me at No.10”

It’s been a long journey of broken promises, off-field incidents and not a lot of rugby but Gavin Henson says he has now resurrected his career in his favourite ten jersey.
After a whirlwind tour of Saracens, Toulon and Cardiff Blues, Henson’s career looked to be in terminal decline when he was sacked by the Blues in April following an incident on a flight back from Glasgow.
He made just 11 league appearances for those three clubs after leaving the Ospreys in 2010 but while Henson holds his hands up his part in his Blues departure he also blames his wilderness years on being shunted around the backline.
Aged 30, and more than seven years on from his breakthrough display for Wales, Henson is wearing a slightly different shade of red for Lyn Jones at Premiership newcomers London Welsh.
“I couldn’t end my career on a sacking,” Henson says. “It’s kept me playing and kept my drive to prove I can play ten at the top level. It’s what I want to do, I haven’t done it yet. I’ve had a couple of games, but I have to keep going hard.
“It’s taken quite a few years for a coach to give me a chance so hopefully I can repay the faith to Lyn.
“Whenever I signed for a club I would say I wanted to play at ten and it was like false promises, they would say ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, ten’ but then it never really happened.
“With ten there is a lot of responsibility and coaches are under pressure to get wins and for whatever reason I probably wasn’t there long enough to get in as a ten or they didn’t see me as a ten.
“With Lyn I knew he would be true to his word and that’s what made my decision to go with London Welsh. It was a big thing for me. I only want to play ten.
“There were one or two other offers out there for me but they weren’t looking at me as a ten so I wasn’t interested.”
Henson admitted he would have quit the game for good if the Blues had ditched him purely for his on-field contributions.
He said:  “I had to prove myself to myself more than anyone.
“I had the doubts which were pretty normal given what I had been through. The way it ended with Cardiff Blues, getting sacked, was a bit embarrassing.
“If they had ended my contract based on the playing side of things that would have been the end. I couldn’t have gone to another club.”
Henson is well-aware of the path he has to tread to make a Wales return, having last featured in August 2011 before he was struck down with a wrist injury.
He agrees with Wales caretaker coach Rob Howley that he needs a full season under his belt before he can starting thinking about a Test return.
That is not to say that the Six Nations is completely out of the question however.
He added: “I definitely wouldn’t say no to a call-up for the Six Nations. I’m nowhere near international standard at the moment, but there’s time before then, who knows what will happen?
“I am 30 and getting on a bit but I think if you’re quality and still playing with quality then I don’t think I’ll be overlooked because of my age.
“I look after myself and physically I’m in pretty good shape, it’s just the mental capability of getting through every week and getting through games.
“That’s the biggest thing for me because if I do that everything else will fall into place.
“Rob has said that he’d like me to wait a full season before getting back involved which is exactly what I think and what needs to happen.
“I’d love to be part of the Welsh team because it’s an incredible bunch of boys and the talent is outrageous.
“It was a bit of a blip against Argentina last week, but you don’t become a bad team overnight.”
PAUL EDDISON