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Daily Mail, Thursday, March 5, 2020^
Fleetwood urges ‘harsh’ Azinger to pipe down
EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEW
by Daniel
Matthews
I
T T U R N S o u t t w o
Lions can share the
same patch, after all.
This St David’s Day in
the Welsh village of
St Brides Major, The Fox
i s f i l l i n g u p. T h e p u b
reopened only a short time
ago under new landlord
Gavin Henson. As locals
gather for a pint and a pat-
ter, in walks Scott Gibbs.
Like the new owner, he is sport-
ing a black leather jacket. And
like Henson, Gibbs is immortal in
these parts thanks to one display
against the old enemy. At Wem-
bley in 1999, his late try denied
England a Grand Slam. The next
time Wales beat their rivals,
Henson took centre stage. In 2005,
all shaved legs and spray tan, the
playmaker’s late penalty sparked
a new dawn in Welsh rugby. That
day in Cardiff, Henson carried
England teenager Mathew Tait
along for the ride, too.
Fifteen years on, as England
and Wales prepare to meet once
more, Henson is back home. He
still wears No 12 but these days
the colourful 38-year- old is a
midfielder for Super Fox United
— j u g g l i n g S u n d a y l e a g u e
football with a new business.
This area has been battered by
floods but today — through sun-
shine, showers and hail — Super
Fox United and Llangeinor brave
the punishing slope and treadmill
winds. Only one familiar face opts
for tights. As sheep graze next
door, the football is similarly
agricultural.
‘I can’t believe we threw it away,’
Henson reflects, having swept thechanging room after the 3-3 draw.
Here Super Fox are denied by a
late penalty. Back in 2005, the
silver boot was on the other foot.
Wales’ 11-9 victory that day laid
the foundations for a first Welsh
Grand Slam since 1978 and a
period of unprecedented success
in their recent history.
For Henson, too, it proved
life-changing. His eye-catching
displays and head-turning looks
c a t a p u l t e d h i m i n t o t h e
unfamiliar territory of rugby
superstardom. Soon his
‘Welsh Posh and Becks’
relationship with Char-
lotte Church dominated
f r o n t a n d
back pages.
‘That’s
probably the
best game of
rugby I’ve ever
played,’ he reflects.
‘It feels about 30
years ago! A lot has
happened since.’
Henson has never
watched the game but
he needs no remind-
ing that, at 23, on
h i s f i r s t S i x
Nations start,he produced three moments for-
ever etched into rugby folklore.
Before that, though, came the
grooming. Ahead of kick-off, as
Wales gathered for a huddle,
Henson was found fixing his hair
in the loos. ‘I always have to see
that I’m looking good and then I
know it’s going to be a great day,’
Henson says.
It worked. Four minutes from
time, his 44-metre penalty won
the game. Earlier, he produced
two rib-shuddering tackles. Tait,
18 and on debut, was on the
receiving end of both. The first
saw him picked up and speared
into the turf. ‘Welcome to interna-
tional rugby!’ a Bridgend taxi
d r i v e r s a y s , r e c a l l i n g B r i a n
Moore’s iconic line. Then, six
minutes after half-time, Tait dum-
mied and stepped inside. Henson
read it, turned him horizontal and
carried him under one arm.
‘I’ve never spoken to him about
it,’ Henson says. ‘I played against
him recently and he left a bit
behind!’ he smirks.
Henson won two Grand Slams
and repre-
sented the
L i o n s i n
2 0 0 5. B u t
his World Cup
d r e a m w a s
unfulfilled.
‘I will be remem-
bered as someone
who didn’t reach
his potential,’ he
l a u g h s. ‘ T h a t’ s
what everyone says.
Which is probablytrue. I see youngsters coming
through the rugby environment in
the last five or six years and
people are saying: “Wow this
player is special”. And I will be
like: “Mmmmm, well he’s all right”.
Then I think back, “Well I was
good. If you think that was special,
then I must have been really
good”. But I didn’t fulfil it really,
for one reason or another.’
Injuries certainly played their
part. Henson’s body broke down
— his infamous shaving habits
originated from a broken leg
rather than vanity. But indisci-
pline cost him, too.
He left Toulon after an alleged
bust-up with team-mates. He was
sacked by Cardiff Blues over
drunken antics on a plane.
During his time at Bath, he was
punched by a team-mate. In 2009,
Henson stepped away from rugby
for more than a year.
‘I just needed time out of the
game,’ he says. ‘I was living on
fresh air so I needed money.’
He moved into reality TV,
appearing on 71 Degrees North,
Strictly Come Dancing and The
B a c h e l o r. ‘ T h e y w e r e g r e a t
experiences, I’m so glad I had
those,’ Henson says.
Any regrets? ‘I don’t know. I did
have fun. I probably wasn’t pro-
fessional enough because I liked
to have a drink. I was a young,
single guy most of that time and I
wanted to go out and meet girls.’
These days, Henson insists he isa different person. His beard is
greying, his life now more mellow
with new wife Katie Wilson Mould
— with whom he owns The Fox.
Henson always pined to play
football. Owning a pub? Not so
much. But with The Fox ‘dying a
death’, he bowed to peer pressure
and took on the job. ‘It coincided
well with me finishing rugby — I
didn’t have that down time.’ He
puts on a sad voice. ‘“Oh, what
am I going to do with my life?”’
Right now, Henson says he just
wants to disappear.
Perhaps that’s why he went on
the run on Celebrity Hunted last
year. But who knows what lies
ahead? After all, everything was
turned upside down that day in- Not just Tait.
Wales hero is now landlord
of a pub and plays in midfield
for a Sunday football team...
HENSON
STILL RUNS
THE SHOW
Meet the
landlord:
Henson
outside his
new pub
gareTh evereTTHENSON FACTFILE
CLUB CAREER Pl Pts
Llanelli (2000) 1 5
Swansea (00-03) 5 7 391
Ospreys (03-09) 9 8 778
Saracens (10-11) 3 0
Toulon (2011) 3 5
Cardiff Blues (11-12) 8 0
London Welsh (12-13) 9 67
Bath (13-15) 3 5 72
Bristol (15-17) 2 7 271
Dragons (17-19) 1 8 101WALES (2001-11)
Caps 33 l Tries 3 l Cons 29
Pens 18 l DGs 1 l Points 130
BRITISH & IRISH LIONS (2005)
Cap 1 l Points 0Power play:
Henson upends Tait
andy hooPerAS ever with Tommy Fleetwood,
the tone was measured and the words
considered — but he made no secret of
his displeasure at finding himself in the
middle of a storm following some
ill-conceived comments by
controversial American Paul Azinger.
Speaking for the first time about
Azinger’s lofty dismissal of his five wins
in europe and the european Tour in
general — Azinger thinks players have
to win in America to prove themselves
— the Merseysider made a point that
ought to provide the 2008 US ryder Cup
captain with food for thought.
‘There’s a few layers to this and one
that should be considered is the effect
such comments can have on a player’smental health,’ the 29-year-old told
Sportsmail. ‘It won’t bother me, but
some players could see it in a very bad
light. Imagine if you’re doing great in
your career, you’ve won a few times
and getting closer and closer to the
winning line in America, and then
you’re faced with a harsh statement
like that?’
Fleetwood added: ‘It was a
disappointing two minutes of
conversation. I get that he’s now a
commentator on American television
and trying to promote the PGA Tour,and yes, it’s true we do all want to play
here at some point. I just thought he
was being particularly disrespectful to
the likes of Colin Montgomerie and
Lee Westwood. I mean, how much
more could they have done?
‘Then he tries to backtrack and says
that players choke because of the
amount of cash at stake in America.
Well, I’ve just won a tournament in
South Africa with a $2million first prize,
so that’s not right either.’
Azinger has not contacted Fleetwood
since making his remarks at the Honda
Classic on Sunday, although he will be
commentating on the Arnold Palmer
Invitational, beginning today, where
the englishman hopes to continuehis rich vein of form. Fleetwood has
finished in the top three in four of his
last six events and you have to go back
almost two years to find the last time
he missed a halfway cut.
‘Of course I want to win in America for
the first time but I can hardly
complain,’ said Fleetwood, now back in
the world’s top 10. Asked how long it
took him to get over Sunday’s near
miss, when he found the water at the
18th to lose by two shots, he smiled.
‘There’s a lot of worse things going on
in the world than me hitting a bad five
wood,’ he said. Also playing here is
another man in form — rory McIlroy,
who has finished fifth or better in
each of his last six events.GOLF
EXCLUSIVE By DEREK LAWRENSON