Italians Set Sights on Golden Boy Gavin Henson

There is little the Italians appreciate more than being visited by a charismatic international sportsman with bella figura, and yesterday an Italian sports daily was making much of Gavin Henson in the same style it adopted for Ronaldo and Christian Vieri.

"All eyes on the playboy," ran the headline, making much of the "Don King hair, permanent tan and golden boots". Italy's head coach John Kirwan pitched in with jocular threats about directing models with bottles of champagne to the Wales hotel to distract the boy wonder, just as he did when Brian O'Driscoll first flew into the Eternal City.

"I'll change room numbers with Gavin" was the riposte from Wales's coach Mike Ruddock, whose priority is to shield his rising star from other pressures. "There is a definite feeling in the camp that we don't want to make him into a hero-to-zero, that we want to bring him through on a pace that we are comfortable with."

It is no coincidence that the Italian backs have been working hard on their midfield defence this week, with the seasoned centre Andrea Masi allotted the task of marshalling the line. "I thought Henson was outstanding, particularly when Wales were reduced to 14 men," said Kirwan. "He didn't just dominate the defence, but he took control with his kicking game."

Ruddock feels that Henson and Wales's interests are best served by limiting the occasions on which the golden boy is asked to kick, notwithstanding the role of the golden boot in putting the decisive penalty over against England. "Gavin enjoys the role, but he felt fresh coming to that kick because he hadn't been used so much.

"What we're seeing with Gavin is that he can run the game, because he doesn't have to worry about the responsibility of making calls and taking goal-kicks. It frees him up to play, run, pass and make those big tackles we saw against England. And the fact that Stephen Jones missed a couple of kicks doesn't mean he has suddenly become a bad kicker."

How Jones and Henson kick, particularly out of hand, will depend on whether they can master the Mitre ball used by Italy, which scuppered Ireland's kicking game six days ago. "We picked up on the Mitre ball the day after the England game," said Ruddock. "We've been doing recovery sessions and training sessions with it all week. The ball has a different flight but we're not looking at having problems with that."

This afternoon, as his side seeks its first away victory in the Six Nations for almost four years, Ruddock will be more worried about the beast in Italy's forwards than Kirwan's jests about Italian beauties bearing bottles of spumante.

"I had a smile on my face on Sunday morning and it was gone on Sunday afternoon when I saw Italy play Ireland. Their forward power is hugely impressive. I think they are the most improved team in world rugby. When they first came to the Six Nations they were being beaten quite heavily, but they could have won against the triple crown-winning team last week."

Whether the azzurri can take advantage of the strength of their pack and repeat their victory of two years ago will depend on their ability to maintain their concentration, according to their captain Marco Bortolami, who - with his fellow lock Santiago Dellape - was a massive physical presence in last Saturday's opener. "We were pretty unlucky against Ireland," he said, "but if we can be more competitive at the critical moments, we can win.

"We have worked a lot on the mental side this week. Rugby at the highest level is 80% mental and 20% physical. We can play at the same level as most teams physically now, but we have to improve the mental side.

"The problem for Italian players is that the Italian championship is not very competitive - they can't play a good match every week. They are not used to playing at the highest level for the last 20 minutes of a game. On the field we are trying to use the experience of the French-based players to set an example, so that the others look at us and understand that we can focus for 80 minutes."

Kirwan says Italy need to learn to take their chances. "I've got a bit sick of getting compliments for losing. Against Ireland we should have taken points at the right time but we didn't show the maturity we should have. The side is good enough to win. It's just a matter of putting the icing on the cake."

To do that, however, they will need to follow the newspaper's advice and keep an eye on "the playboy".

Italy: 15 Roland De Marigny (Parma) 14 Mirco Bergamasco (Stade F) 13 Walter Pozzebon (Treviso) 12 Andrea Masi (Viadana) 11 Ludovico Nitoglia (Calvisano) 10 Luciano Orquera (Padova) 9 AlessandroTroncon (Treviso) 1 Andrea Lo Cicero (L'Aquila) 2 Fabio Ongaro (Treviso) 3 Martin Castrogiovanni (C'sano) 4 Santiago Dellape (Agen) 5 Marco Bortolami (Narbonne, capt) 6 Aaron Persico (Agen) 7 Mauro Bergamasco (Stade F) 8 Sergio Parisse (Treviso). Replacements: G Intoppa (Calvisano), S Perugini (Calvisano), C Del Fava (Parma), D Dal Maso (Treviso), P Griffen (Calvisano), M Barbini (Padova), K Robertson (Viadana)

Wales: 15 Gareth Thomas (Toulouse, capt) 14 Hal Luscombe (Dragons) 13 Tom Shanklin (Cardiff) 12 Gavin Henson (Ospreys) 11 Shane Williams (Ospreys) 10 Stephen Jones (Montferrand) 9 Dwayne Peel (Llanelli) 1 Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff) 2 Mefin Davies (Gloucester) 3 Adam Jones (Ospreys) 4 Brent Cockbain (Ospreys) 5 Robert Sidoli (Cardiff) 6 Jonathan Thomas (Ospreys) 7 Martyn Williams (Cardiff) 8 Michael Owen (Dragons). Replacements: R McBryde (Llanelli), J Yapp (Cardiff), I Gough (Dragons), R Sowden-Taylor (Cardiff), G Cooper (Dragons), C Sweeney (Dragons), K Morgan (Dragons)