Henson's hand of friendship

WELSH rugby pin-up Gavin Henson has offered an olive branch to Brian O'Driscoll ahead of Wales' Six Nations clash with Ireland on Sunday at Lansdowne Road.

The Wales and Ospreys star, who starts on the bench, accused O'Driscoll of gouging him during last year's Grand Slam decider. That was just one revelation in Henson's controversial autobiography; he also claimed that O'Driscoll abused him verbally towards the end of the Ireland-Wales clash, when the Ireland captain felt Henson had tried to foot-trip Geordan Murphy.

"Brian is a quality player and I was lucky enough to play with him over on the Lions tour," Henson said. "Any argument between us has been built up to something that it's not in the papers. He was our captain and he's a world-class player, and I've been telling the other boys in the team what he was like and how good he was."