Gatland: Henson fit and ready to return

WALES boss Warren Gatland has no doubt that Gavin Henson is fit and ready to make his long awaited Test rugby return in Paris on Friday night.

Henson will be among the replacements when Wales continue their RBS 6 Nations title and Grand Slam quest against France.

He has not featured on the international stage since Wales beat Les Bleus to land last season’s Six Nations crown, missing eight successive Tests.

And Henson’s last game of any kind was more than four weeks ago when the Ospreys defeated Heineken Cup rivals Leicester. But after shaking off a calf muscle strain that ruled him out of Wales’ opening Six Nations victories over Scotland and England, Gatland saw enough to satisfy him during training last week.

Gatland said: “What I wanted with Gavin was for him to be involved with us in training last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We trained really hard on Wednesday, Thursday was a lighter day and Friday was really tough as well.

“If you talk to the players in terms of what they go through on the training pitch, they are not lengthy sessions, but they are pretty intensive.

“Players are put under a lot of pressure and we try to simulate game situations as much as we can.

“If we are doing that in a training environment, you sometimes feel particularly experienced players can cope with the fact they haven’t had a lot of rugby. We just needed two or three days for us to see where Gavin was in terms of fitness, sharpness and skill level. He trained really well last week.”

Henson has however failed to break up the all-Cardiff centre pairing of Tom Shanklin and Jamie Roberts, taking over from Andrew Bishop on the bench.

And his selection comes less than a week after Henson and three Wales colleagues – Andy Powell, Jonathan Thomas and Rhys Thomas – were rebuked by Gatland and team manager Alan Phillips.

All four players apologised after what the Welsh Rugby Union termed “varying degrees of regrettable conduct” while they were out in Cardiff celebrating the England win eight days ago.

Gatland has made a solitary change in the starting line-up, welcoming back wing Shane Williams.

Williams, scorer of 45 tries in 62 Tests, is now fit following an ankle injury that meant he missed the England encounter, reclaiming the number 11 shirt from Mark Jones.

But Gatland has otherwise retained the team that accounted for England as Wales seek a record-equalling ninth successive Six Nations victory.

While Gatland’s stars enjoyed the weekend off, numerous French players were pummelling each other in Top 14 fixtures, highlighted by yesterday’s battle between Toulouse and Clermont Auvergne. And there can be little doubt the countries’ respective degrees of preparation time could have a significant bearing on the first Friday night fixture in Six Nations history.

“It is going to be interesting to see how they (French players) are managed over the next couple of days in terms of recovery,” said Gatland. “It is going to be difficult for them to do a hell of a lot before Friday night’s game.

WALES: L Byrne (Ospreys); L Halfpenny, T Shanklin, J Roberts (all Cardiff Blues), S Williams (Ospreys); S Jones (Scarlets), M Phillips (Ospreys); G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), M Rees (Scarlets), A Jones, I Gough, AW Jones, R Jones (all Ospreys, capt), M Williams, A Powell (both Cardiff Blues).

Replacements: H Bennett (Ospreys), J Yapp (Cardiff Blues), L Charteris (Newport Gwent Dragons), D Jones (Scarlets), D Peel (Sale Sharks), J Hook, G Henson (both Ospreys).