‘You couldn’t grab a drink, people were pulling you everywhere. We were like movie stars...’
gone.
The circumstances surrounding Mike Ruddock’s shock Wales exit in 2006 will forever be debated, but it’s clear a senior player group, named by Adam Jones as Gareth Thomas, Martyn Williams, Stephen Jones and Brent Cockbain, had issues.
Henson also found himself at the centre of a storm after publishing a book, My Grand Slam Year. Some of his more critical words upset members of the squad.
“I’d had another injury after the Lions tour and had to take six or seven months off so I don’t know exactly what went on in camp but by the time I’d come back in, the ‘best coach ever’ Ruddock had gone.
“He obviously had a lot of belief in me, would tell me to play what I saw in front of me and he was great to play for. I lost that when he went so it was a very ment.
“Senior player groups are such a dangerous thing. People get player power and it’s carnage in a squad.”
Does he feel some of those players didn’t like him because he was different from the rest? different environ
“Yeh, completely. Through my early years, I was never, I don’t know, is ‘accepted’ the right word?
“I look at it now. If I was in a team and a youngster came through with the potential I had, crikey, I’d have my arm around him and make sure he was the best he could be.
“It was a tough environment and I suppose that acceptance wasn’t quite there. People would always try and second guess me and always think I was a bit different.
“That senior player power can be quite poisonous to have in a group. They are always held up