Henson fixates on making his case

LIONS TOUR: A special case among not only the Welsh media and public but also, it would appear, in his own mind, Gavin Henson responded to his much-publicised omission from the Test 22 with a two-try performance full of personal indignation and brio.

Quite why a 23-year-old - however talented - in what is effectively his rookie Test season should be made such a special case out of all the players who were sent to Invercargill is moot, but once again he hogged the show afterwards in his own inimitable, intriguing way.

And it started with the management. Curiously, the Lions' media consultant, Alastair Campbell, picked out a couple of English and Welsh journalists and passed them a note saying Clive Woodward had been impressed by Henson's response. Hmm. Okay.

In that disarming, boyish manner of his, Henson can't hide his feelings and though you couldn't fault his response, he came across as a self-absorbed young man who doesn't cope well with rejection or failure of any kind. He was still taking his omission from the Test 22 badly, even if he had made a pretty impressive response from the depths of his own despair.

"I believe I'm good enough to be in that Test side," he told Sky television. "Getting that news hurt me a lot but it's up to me now. I wish the boys all the best. It will be an enormous Test match. I'm just sorry I can't be involved."

By the time he attended the press conference, it appeared he had been Campbelled. How satisfying was it to score two tries?

"It was nice to score two tries, to score my first tries for the Lions. Yea, it was good," he answered guardedly. "Obviously I was disappointed not to be in the Test squad but maybe that's life. I just love playing rugby and it was good that we had a game tonight to take it out of my mind."

The no-arms tackles that blighted his performance were probably born out of a desire to make big hits, as defensive coach Mike Ford admitted.

"It's something that he's going to have to work very, very hard on, on wrapping and completing. We think Gavin is a fine defender. Certainly his decision-making since he first came out on tour has improved 100 per cent and, like I said, it's just a matter of him completing the tackle. There's no drama there."

Ford, who said travelling was a "massive" factor in a tired performance, afforded Henson some excuse in that the Welsh defensive system is different from those employed by England, Ireland and now the Lions.

"It's taken him a little while but he's worked very hard and playing in the centre, decision-making, he's one of the best defenders in the squad one-on-one. I wouldn't say it's a deficiency now."

It's clear the Lions coaching staff, without either his club or national coach, have invested a fair amount of time and energy in this enigmatic individual.

That he ran straighter than he has sometimes done suggests the lessons are getting through and, who knows, but maybe this Lions tour will be the makings of him. Yet when he was asked why he thought he had missed out and what he had to do to make the Test team, Henson's response was not that of a player absorbing the lessons.

"I haven't got a clue. I feel I'm playing quite well at the moment. I only really played 60 minutes of the first game after two months out, felt it went well, and then in the second game, it felt like my game was getting there, got taken off again. It was just nice to play 80 minutes tonight."

Likewise, when asked about the reaction in Wales to his omission, Henson responded: "Is there? Oh good, then I must be doing something right."

As they left the room, Henson smiled cheekily at journalists on the way out, but stopped to ask Campbell, "Was that all right?"

A better overall evaluation of the team effort came from Ronan O'Gara.

"After 10 minutes we kind of lost our shape and took the foot off the pedal and thought these were for the taking, but then they made it difficult for us and we probably turned the ball over too many times and gave away too many penalties.

"We addressed the issue at half-time. The coaching staff gave us a bit of a bollicking, and we deserved it, and the second half was a little bit more controlled. But I suppose we're disappointed with the way we played, if happy to get the victory."

Ian McGeechan admitted the Lions "probably tried to play sevens too much and once we went 10 up we became too individualistic".

Assistant coach Gareth Jenkins echoed those sentiments, adding, "It's been a pretty demanding four or five days on this group. We started particularly well, maybe too well. We became too individual far too early and to be fair to Southland they recognised that and what they did was front particularly well."