Hugh Godwin talks to Ospreys and Wales fly-half Dan Biggar ahead of the latest round of Heineken Cup action and the Six Nations in The Independent.
"The telephone handset was returned to its cradle – the M4 was snowbound, you see, or the interview would have been in Swansea in person – and immediately there came the slapped-head moment. "Curses! Forgot to ask him about Gavin Henson." But the redial button went unpressed. Dan Biggar had said and given enough. In an imaginary edition of A Question of Sport, Henson would be the mystery personality or even occupy the archive round. Biggar belongs to the much more exciting category of "what happens next?".
"So here's a starter for the Ospreys No 10, the 20-year-old successor to Henson for his region and a potential match-winner for Wales. Where does Biggar see himself in Wales' fly-half pecking order? "I've succeeded with my plan to oust James [Hook] as fly-half for the Ospreys," he replied, "by quietly going about my business. As for Wales, there was no doubt Stephen Jones was the No 1 fly-half going into the autumn. I feel I'm doing as well as I can to push Steve for that role, and that was my aim at the start of the season. I would love to be included in the Six Nations squad."
"The squad is likely to be announced the week after next, in between rounds five and six of the Heineken Cup, in which Biggar and the Ospreys have make-or-break matches away to Clermont Auvergne and at home to Leicester. The sometimes frustrating but always headline-making region appear to have clicked under new coach Scott Johnson and with former All Black flanker Jerry Collins minding the youthful Biggar, with five wins on the hoof – or should that be talon? – Wales' perennially super-charged meeting with England, which is at Twickenham on the first Saturday in February, can wait just for now."
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