Saracens have abandoned plans to involve Gavin Henson, who has not played for 20 months, in Friday night's Heineken Cup group match against Racing Métro in Paris and the Wales centre will make his comeback as a replacement against Wasps at Wembley on Boxing Day.
Saracens could have registered Henson for the Heineken Cup as a medical wild card, but the 2005 Lion still has Strictly Come Dancing commitments, even though he was eliminated from the competition at the weekend. And although he has not played for such a long time, Sarries intend to talk to the 28-year-old about extending his contract beyond the end of the season.
"Gavin is training with us on a regular basis and each time a session finishes, the coaches are talking about the special things he is able to do on the pitch," said the Saracens chief executive, Edward Griffiths. "We were allowed to register him for the Racing Métro game, but he still has commitments to Strictly so his first involvement in a match squad for us will be the Wasps game.
"The intention of Saracens and Gavin is to put something long-term together in terms of a contract which we would aim to sort out before the end of the season. We hope he will be involved in the Six Nations with Wales and we would try and conclude this in April."
Henson joined Saracens in October after being released from his contract by Ospreys. He had taken a 14-month sabbatical from the game after becoming disillusioned and plagued by injuries but says he is now ready to reclaim his place in the Wales squad.
"I am convinced my rugby is going to go well and I'm going to do everything I can to get into the Six Nations team," he said. "I think we're due another grand slam and I want to be part of it. I just can't wait to play now and I'm just trying to impress as much as I can now in training with Saracens.
"I hope my first game is sooner rather than later because the bigger picture for me is the Six Nations and playing for my country again. The way I look at it, the club have used me for promotion for the Wasps game so they're going to have to play me, I hope. I think they've sold 50-60,000 tickets so it would be a hell of a match to come back to, I'd love to be involved in it. I do not mind being chucked into the deep end."
Meanwhile, the Saracens director of rugby, Brendan Venter, has been told by the Heineken Cup organisers to be respectful to television interviewers following his bizarre answers to questions following last Saturday's defeat to Racing Métro.
Venter, who is returning to South Africa next month, had given up doing post-match interviews after being fined by European Rugby Cup Ltd earlier in the season for remarks he made about refereeing. He broke his silence after the Racing game, but spoke in riddles.
"ERC would like to point out that it expects key representatives of clubs participating in its tournaments to engage with the media in a co-operative and respectful manner, and is therefore disappointed by Mr Venter's approach throughout the interview," said the organisers in a statement.
"ERC has asked Saracens to confirm that Mr Venter will not adopt the same approach, or one in anyway similar, when giving media interviews before or after Friday's Heineken Cup Pool 3 game between Racing Métro and Saracens."
Paul Vaughan, the Rugby Football Union's business operations director, was today named as the chief executive officer for England Rugby 2015, the body set up for the World Cup, which will be held in the country that year.
"We cast the net wide and saw some impressive and highly experienced candidates but in the end we all agreed that Paul had a unique combination of experience in the rugby market, commercial expertise and leadership skills," said Martyn Thomas, the chairman of the RFU's management board and England Rugby 2015.
"Making the Rugby World Cup a success will require a positive and collaborative relationship with the International Rugby Board and the RFU; it goes without saying Paul has those relationships already in place and has been closely involved in our planning so far. We are already well on our way to delivering an outstanding World Cup."
Meanwhile, the Bath outside-half, Butch James, who has not played this season after a shoulder operation in the summer, is in line to make his comeback against Ulster in the Heineken Cup at the Recreation Ground on Saturday.
The Wales and Scarlets outside-half, Stephen Jones, will have a scan tomorrow to assess the knee ligament damage he sustained against Treviso last weekend. The region expect the 33-year-old to be out for up to a month.
