NATIONAL coach Mike Ruddock is not worried about the celebrity-style high profile of Wales' latest rugby superstar Gavin Henson.

The 23-year-old gained instant fame for his late long range penalty which put the skids under world champions England at the Millennium Stadium last month.

That, plus his image, including spiky hair, body waxing and his gold or silver boots, lifted him out of the usual rugby player's kind of role.

On top of that Henson has been seen out with world renowned singer and tabloid favourite Charlotte Church, whose own alleged private life was exposed in a Sunday newspaper by her former boyfriend.

Twice since Wales' last game against France a fortnight ago, once within 48 hours of the match ending, Henson has been photographed emerging from night clubs with the teenage singing sensation.

Ruddock admits he has spoken to Henson about his increasingly public profile, but immediately adds that he is happy with it.

"Gavin has got a personal and private life, and you've got to respect that," he said. "I've spoken to him in the comfort of my office and we've had a chat.

"But I'm very confident about what I've heard and about all aspects of Gavin's preparation and what he wants to do.

"Outside rugby, that's up to him. He's quite sensible and I'm sure he'll arrange his free time accordingly. I'm not in a position to decide whether lads have a girlfriend.

"Every player realises that he needs to know how things impact on the team."

When asked further about Henson's night club activities Ruddock ran out of patience and said, "let's talk about the rugby".

He further bridled when it was suggested Wales had line-out problems ahead of Sunday's game against Scotland at Murrayfield as they build up to a possible Grand Slam showdown against Ireland.

He produced statistics of a different kind from Charlotte Church's vital ones to back up his claim that they did not exist.

"We have made a huge improvement in the set pieces," he said. "We had hugely improved stats from the France game last year, we were up there competing in the line-outs, we pushed them in the scrums and we turned them over.

"We also pushed South Africa off their own ball in the Autumn for Dwayne Peel to score a try.

"We have looked at areas we could attack the Scottish team, we're very happy we've done our homework and we're happy with our game plan."

But he warned: "We defied the odds against England and if we can turn that around so can Scotland, there's no reason why they can't."