‘One or two boys were quite open and honest about drugs’
obsessively meticulous about everything he did on the pitch despite some of the chaotic drama that clouded him off it.
Henson is 38 now, and very much at the start of a new beginning. He looks as sharp as ever, although the chiselled features are covered by a thick, slightly greying beard these days.
Two hours before our meeting, he could be found doing what he now does every Sunday at 11am: playing football on the sloping windswept pitch of St Brides Major Pavilion, just outside Bridgend.
This is where he spent hours as a young man, practising the kicking that would propel him to rugby superstardom. It is now the home of Super Fox United, the team he set up with childhood best friend Jamie Griffiths that is becoming big news in the village.
The number on his back is, of course, 12, but his role now is as a driving box-to-box central midfielder rather than a cultured inside centre.
“It’s probably not been his best game today, to be honest,” says co-manager Jamie as a dramatic 3-3 draw comes to its conclusion, but he still glides across the turf in that Henson way and he naturally finds a second or two more on the ball than most around him.
After Henson sweeps the changing rooms clean, it’s all back to the Fox, the new pub he and wife Katie have spent 10 months renovating, which is now open for business.
“I’m just really passionate about the village,” Henson explains.
“We managed to put a team together of all the old boys. When I was in school they would all be playing football and I was always watching with a jealous eye, thinking ‘I’d love to play’ but I stuck to my rugby. You had to choose at that age so I pined for it a bit. I think I’m trying to recapture my youth. Maybe we all are.
“The pub has always been run down and never run right. It coincided well