Welsh Rugby Star Gavin Henson Has New Role As Model

With the exception of Jonny Wilkinson, rugby players are not the most obviously glamorous choices to front fashion labels. Big, burly and often not all that pretty to look at, they are quite different from the flash football players who sign deals with fashion labels such as Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani.
But then Gavin Henson is far from what we have come to expect of a professional rugby player. He goes out with the nightclub-haunting pop diva Charlotte Church, appears to have a keen interest in fashion and has often talked about bringing some gloss to the rugby pitch.
In the flesh, Henson is nothing like his tabloid image. He's softly spoken, polite, chiselled and good-looking, with not a hint of the fake tan and overt grooming of which the tabloid press accuses him. Having said that... he has just spent about an hour and a half having his thick deep brown locks trimmed, waxed and sculpted by his girlfriend's hairdresser, during which he asked an awful lot of questions about how quickly his hair should be growing and where he can get nifty Italian combs.
A few days earlier, Henson heard that his suspension (for elbowing Leicester's Alex Moreno) had been reduced, allowing him to play in at least some of the forthcoming Six Nations matches. But today he's discussing his role as the new face of clothing retailer Matalan. The company, celebrating its 21st anniversary, is now the largest discount retailer in the country, selling cheap fashion and homeware from its out-of-town stores.
The Welsh rugby international, who has been photographed out on the town in plush Italian labels such as Ermenegildo Zegna and is a big fan of luxurious menswear, was impressed when shooting the spring/summer menswear range. "I couldn't believe how cheap everything is and it looked really good,'' he says. ''I've always been into fashion and have always liked expensive labels, but not in an obvious way. I like clothes when you don't know who they've been made by."
For Henson, a fashion campaign made an amusing change from his day job. "I really enjoyed it - it was something different for me. I've always been on my own for shoots so it was good to be with models teaching me how to pose properly,'' he says. The campaign will also bring the sportsman closer to the young rugby fans he is keen to encourage. "I don't know if rugby can ever be as big as soccer but I would hope that kids growing up would see my lifestyle and it would be quite appealing for them."
But he is not quite ready to throw everything up for the supermodel life. "I wouldn't want it to interfere with my rugby. The other week I had a black eye and if I had had to go and do a shoot that would have been a real problem."
Henson is not a big shopper and tends to rely on the freebies he is sent by sponsors and fashion labels who vie for his endorsement. "I like to look the part on the field as it gives me confidence, but since I have been seeing Charlotte if we are going out then we know we are going to get snapped, too."
He scoffs at suggestions that his girlfriend might influence what he wears. "She's always asking me for advice, not the other way round. We were going out the other night and she came down and asked how she looked, so I said: 'Yeah, it's all right.' And she went straight back up and got changed." With this, he laughs.
He dismisses recent reports that he is to play a cameo role in Catherine Zeta Jones's forthcoming film Coming Out, which stars Alan Cumming as a gay cabaret performer who leads a struggling Welsh rugby team to victory. But acting is something that he would consider in the future. "I never say never. If something was interesting I would certainly think about it."
from Telegraph