Henson says sorry to Wales team-mates
Gavin Henson has issued a public and private apology to any of his Wales team-mates who were offended by the controversial contents of his recently-published autobiography.
Henson fronted a players-only meeting that had been organised by Wales captain Gareth Thomas so the squad could discuss the book and raise any grievances over its incendiary contents.
In ‘My Grand Slam Year’, Henson was not only scathing in his criticism of the Lions tour but also had harsh words for Wales team-mates Colin Charvis and Martyn Williams.
He also questions whether players not born in Wales deserve to play for the country – a touchy subject given his red dragon team-mates Brent Cockbain, Hal Luscombe and Sonny Parker hail from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand respectively.
But Henson insists he did not intend to offend anyone or jeopardise the team spirit that carried Wales to a first Grand Slam in 27 years last season and apologised unreservedly.
“The rest of the squad asked me to meet with them on Sunday and I was really happy to do so,” Henson said today.
“They wanted to make it clear to me that they were unhappy with some of the things that I said in the book and I have fully taken on board everything they said to me.
“I said in the meeting that I would like to apologise to anyone who was offended by anything that was written and I would like to go on record publicly saying that too.
“I didn’t mean to offend anyone, it’s the last thing I wanted to do, and I do understand why the boys were unhappy, and I apologise to them.
“We were a close and tight-knit group during our Six Nations campaign and I don’t want to spoil that.”
Henson missed Wales’ 41-3 defeat to New Zealand on Saturday as he recovers from a groin injury and he is now more determined than ever to get back onto the field and leave the controversy behind him.
“All I want now is to forget about it, the book’s out there, there’s nothing more I can do about that, I just want to draw a line under the whole thing and move on,” Henson said.
“I want to get back to playing rugby for the Ospreys and hopefully get back to playing well enough to be selected by Wales, re-join my international team-mates and move forward.
“I was a small part of a large group of players that did something very special last season and I want to be a part of that again.”
Thomas, praised this week by Wales coach Mike Ruddock for his captaincy, arranged the meeting in an attempt to clear the air.
“We were pleased to see Gavin and it’s great that he’s come out in public and accepted he has been wrong with some of the things he’s said,” said Thomas.
“We needed to discuss it face-to-face so there was no misunderstanding. As a squad of players we now feel we can move on and hopefully this will be the last public comment on the matter.”
Henson, 23, accused Charvis of being on a “power trip” when the two players were at struggling Swansea.
He wrote: “I found Charvis a difficult character to work out and never really got on with him.
“He was captain of Wales and seemed to be on a power trip. He tried to give me advice about being professional off the pitch, but there was an air of superiority to it.”
Henson made peace with Wales Rugby Union chief executive David Moffett in a clear-the-air meeting on October 25.
“The talk has been very constructive, quite good in fact. We went over a few issues in the book and I explained what I was saying,” Henson said later that day at the book’s official launch.
“David Moffett also asked for one of my books to be signed, so they couldn’t have been that bad about it.
“I think we left on good accounts.”
