Henson takes responsibility for Welsh collapse

Gavin Henson has taken full responsibility for Wales’ defeat to Ireland after a performance which left him depressed and questioning his future in the game.

Henson gave a remarkably frank assesment of his performance at Lansdowne Road and stated that, on current form, he does not deserve to be involved for Wales against Italy a week on Saturday.

Thrust into the action as a 20th-minute substitute for the injured Stephen Jones, Henson was forced to play the unfamiliar role of fly-half. After a season wrecked by injury and suspension it was only Henson’s fifth game since the Lions tour and he struggled to cope with the intensity of the game.

Defeat was not entirely his fault. The Wales forwards received little change from Ireland and could not provide him with the necessary platform.But Henson cut a dejected figure at the team’s Dublin hotel. He could not see past how dramatically the game changed when Jones, who had inspired Wales to take an early lead, limped off.

From 5-3 down, Ireland assumed complete control and went on to score a further 28 unanswered points including tries from David Wallace, Shane Horgan and Peter Stringer.

"I was down after the game, more so this morning. I feel pretty depressed, suicidal," said Henson. "It is a powerful word but if you play sport and you have a bad game you do feel pretty low. You do question what you do it for. onfidence takes a knock and the last thing I want to do at the moment is play rugby. I feel like walking away from it.

"I’ll be fine tomorrow — but at the moment I feel like I have let the country down. If I was a fan watching that game I’d be throwing things at the telly, saying ‘what the hell am I doing?’ When Stephen was on we were playing really well. We were in the lead and if Stephen had stayed on we would probably have won the game.

"I let myself down and I let the players down. They might not say it, but I do take full responsibility. It’s a bit harsh, but I am a bit down about it."

Henson’s kicking from hand was poor and with Wales under pressure he struggled to pick the right attacking options. He will not be a keen observer when it comes to analysing where it went wrong.

"I don’t really want to watch the video tape — my confidence is low enough already," he said. "Fly-half is a big role — Stephen does a good job of that and it showed how much we missed him when he went — and I didn’t make the right plays or the right calls.

"I was always in two minds. It has been a while since I last played 10. There are loads of excuses — but I didn’t perform. I made a lot of mistakes and at international level they get punished. It was a harsh learning curve. I feel disappointed for myself, my friends, team-mates, my family, my coaches."