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The brutal moment when Saracens made Gavin Henson feel embarrassed

(Photo by Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images)

With it being Wales versus England week in Cardiff, Gavin Henson, the penalty hero of the 2005 Six Nations encounter, was always going to crop up in the conversation somewhere along the line. That appearance has happened in The Times where the current owner of The Fox pub in St Brides Major near Bridgend regaled reporter Owen Slot with numerous entertaining memories from a career that was lived out in media headlines.

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There were 33 Wales caps between 2001 and 2011, including two Grand Slam wins, and a single cap on the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour, but there were also many club pitstops and his recollection of his short-lived time at Saracens stood out in his latest rollicking interview.

Henson only ever played three times for the London club he signed for in the 2010/11 season after taking a break from the game. It didn’t go well and he was to finish that comeback season at Toulon before heading to the World Cup in New Zealand with Wales.

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Part of the problem at Saracens was that Henson struggled to fit in, a situation encapsulated by the story he told at his own expense about being embarrassingly caught out by boss Mark McCall just a few weeks into his brief stint at the club.

“Mark McCall, the coach, pulled me out in front of the whole squad,” began Henson. “He said: ‘Right, Gav, I want you to name every player.’ They knew I couldn’t because I always said: ‘Hi pal, hi mate.’ It was bad. I’d been there two weeks, I should have got to know the names, but I hadn’t watched rugby for a long time.

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“I got about two people right out of a squad of about 45. I got David Strettle. I don’t know who else I got. They found it hilarious. It was back to me being an introvert. I didn’t like that. So that was embarrassing. That environment didn’t work for me. It was like extroverts personified. I get that but I was like: ‘I need to run a million miles.’”

Henson also recalled his bizarre dawn wrestling sessions with Brendan Venter, the then Saracens director of rugby who coaxed him to return to playing after his sabbatical. “Brendan Venter – wow, what a guy,” enthused Henson.

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“He had this perception of me; I’ve been on Strictly (Come Dancing) and it’s: ‘Who is this f***ing idiot?’ He thought I was soft. He had me in every morning, 6.30am. Wrestling. I had to wrestle him. We were outside, it was freezing, on this artificial pitch just with a t-shirt and shorts with the fitness coach on a stopwatch.

“He says: ‘Go.’ We’re on our knees for a minute of wrestling. Then he blows the whistle and I’ve got to go and do shuttles; he rests, I come back in and we wrestle again. He comes in with his head, headbutts me, splits my eye and we’re wrestling like this every morning for four weeks. Are you serious? So yes, I didn’t last long there.”

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J
JW 5 hours ago
France player ratings vs England | 2025 Six Nations

Sorry my delivery on that joke was a bit bland. But to reply to the couple of good points you make, to me it just seemed like they had no plan with why Gatland was staying on. I mean the plan seemed to be “just get us a win against Italy and we can continue on as we are”, which is just terrible if that’s what Gatland was trying to achieve for Wales imo.


Did it just happen to be Italy that he saw his team weren’t able to achieve his vision of success? I mean Italy are a very good side so its by no means a lost cause to not look like world beaters. Sure his focus should have been on more transient factors like growth and style for a full rebuild, not trying to avoid the wooden spoon.


Which brings me to you main point, that would be exactly what the benefit of dropping down a tier would be. A chance to really implement something, get good at it, then take it up a level again once you’re ready. Even for Italy it must have been an incredibly brutal environment to have been trying to develop as a side.


Not saying of course that the other EU teams would be any better, but it might be better for everyone if say ‘years of tough losses’ are shared between countries, rather than see Wales go through this journey two, three, possible four years in a row. Of course the main reason they don’t want to miss just one 6N season is because it would probably tank the game in their country missing out on all that revenue. I have always said they should look at widening the revenue share, there are plenty of competitions that have systems to keep bottom teams competitive, and the 6N would only make more money if it was a tierd competition with prom/rel.

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