Henson blasts Woodward

Gavin Henson has criticised Clive Woodward’s build-up to the British and Irish Lions’ tour of New Zealand, accusing him of poor preparation and out-moded tactics.

The Wales centre endured a difficult tour as the Lions went down to a crushing 3-0 whitewash.

The 23-year-old had played a pivotal role as Wales won the Six Nations and had been expected to feature prominently in New Zealand but he was devastated to find himself out in the cold before the first Test.

In a serialisation of his book ‘My Grand Slam Year’ in the Mail on Sunday, Henson said: “I felt let down because I was led to believe I would start the first Test and I didn’t.

“The way I was taken off in the two games leading up to that decision made me feel even more frustrated.

“I’ve still got a lot of respect for Clive, for what he achieved with England, but his preparation of the Test team was poor.

“I also felt his tactics and his game-plan were out of date, whle I was shocked to see how little actual coaching he does.

“Clive’s coaching methods were something new to me and left me a bit bewildered.”

Henson also accused the former England coach of wasting valuable time trying to figure out his best team, a negative approach and concentration on what would “lose us the Test series” and claimed his basic game-plan going into the first Test had been wrong.