Henson takes tango over tries

We live in a strange and hyopcritical world. Gavin Henson, a Wales rugby player who owes the limited fame he has to playing sport, has angrily denied that he promised to play in a rugby international for the Barbarians against South Africa, the world champions, in December.

He insists, instead, that he is committed to appearing in a silly Saturday night reality show and accused the organisers of the rugby team of seeking publicity by announcing he would play.

Henson has played only 31 games for Wales since making his international debut in 2001, but at 28 he could still have the best years of his playing career ahead of him. Instead, he would rather be on Strictly Come Dancing.


What he does is his own business, of course, but Henson would never have become a minor celebrity, fathered children with Charlotte Church or drunk Cristal in nightclubs if he had become a Bridgend farmer rather than an Wales rugby player.

Having been out of the Wales team for 18 months, he was given a road back to the elite game - and perhaps a place at next year's World Cup - when he was announced in the Barbarians team to play South Africa on December 4. Alas, he may still be required to be wearing sequins and satin.

"I haven't committed to the Barbarians, I think they've just used my name for a bit of publicity," Henson said today. I can understand why they've decided to use my name to try to sell tickets because at the moment I'm in the public eye a lot. It's a little bit naughty of them but that's just the day and age."

Well you have to admire the boldness of his hyopcrisy. Of course, his complaints about the Barbarians seeking to cash in on his name for their own publicity would have sounded a bit less silly if he had not been speaking at a press conference to publicise the start of the new series of Strictly this evening...