Wales' celebrity talisman aims to heap bad luck on the Irish
Gavin Henson has never lost when he and Tom Shanklin have started at centre. He will try to extend that run today against his nemesis Brian O'Driscoll. James Corrigan writes in The Independent.
"The last time these two sides met in a Championship decider was 2005 when it happened to be Wales stretching desperate hands across the decades to grab their own elusive Grand Slam. The hype was as overblown as the hwyl and, despite nobody knowing at the time, it had spilled on to the pitch to cover the two most famous players on view in its associated vitriol. Later that same year, in his infamous tome, My Grand Slam Year, Henson accused O'Driscoll of gouging him that day and of yelling in his ear: "How do you like that, you cocky little f****r?"
"O'Driscoll vehemently denied the claims, further castigating his Lions team-mate for accusing other players on that shambolic tour to New Zealand of being "in love with the sound of their own voices". Unsurprisingly, the majority in the game backed O'Driscoll. Henson was cast as the loner, as a pariah even, as an uppity 23-year-old blessed with all the rugby skills but lacking in a few of the union's traditional core "values"..."
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