The Swansea utility back made his Under 21 debut at Pontypridd on 1 February, 2001 when he scored 17 points in a 27-12 victory over an English side that had Charlie Hodgson playing opposite him at outside half.
Henson went on to score 21 points in the 31-18 win over Scotland in Stirling in the next game. Last year he scored the winning try among 18 points as Wales beat Ireland 38-36 at Donnybrook but then lost his place in the starting line-up after the defeat by France at Ebbw Vale.
Cardiff‘s Nick Robinson took over the No 10 jersey and he retains his place for the trip to Rome with Henson slotting in at centre for the first time at this age group.
The Welsh side finished runners-up to France in the championship last season having lost only one game. They then went on to finish as the highest placed northern hemisphere side at the IRB Under 21 World Cup in South Africa last summer.
Henson is one of five capped players behind the scrum – Swales, Nuthall, Robinson and Phillips are the others – and coach Chris Davey has a further three old heads up front in skipper Paul James and locks Bryn Griffiths and Jon Thomas.
‘There is a lot of talent and experience in this side and there is a lot of expectation surrounding the players. We’ve done well against Italy in the past, but we struggled here two years ago,’ said Davey.
‘We’ve been able to take a good look at all the candidates for the Welsh side with our games against England A and the New Zealand Youth Under 21 team and we believe we have a good side. A lot of these players have been playing regularly for Premiership clubs.’
Davey’s side will come into this season’s championship full of confidence after their 28-7 victory over that New Zealand touring team in Cardiff. James led the team into that uncapped game and new caps David Bishop, Johnny Vaughton, Kieron Crawford and Richard Pugh all started in that game.
Italy have conceded 49 tries against Wales at this level in the past five meetings, the only close call coming at Parma in 2001 when Wales won 16-3 and by two tries to nil. Other than that, Wales won 82-18 at the World Under 21 Cup in June, 65-12 in last season’s championship and 95-0 at Newport in 2000.
Wales also won the first game between the two sides at Udine in 1999, when they ran in 12 tries in a 78-19 triumph.
WALES UNDER 21: Gareth Swales (Swansea); Matthew Nuthall (Pontypridd), David Bishop (Bridgend), Gavin Henson (Swansea), Johnny Vaughton (Swansea); Nick Robinson (Cardiff), Michael Phillips (Llanelli); Paul James (Neath, captain), Kieron Crawford (Ebbw Vale), Rhys Thomas (Newport), Bryn Griffiths (Llanelli), Jonathan Thomas (Swansea), Mark Lewis (Pontypridd), Richard Pugh (Swansea), James Malpas (Cardiff).
Replacements: Huw Bennett (Swansea), Geraint Morris (Pontypridd), Chris Stamatakis (Cardiff), Robin Sowden-Taylor (Cardiff), Ricky Richards (Neath), Scott Williams (Newport), Will Kershaw-Naylor (Bristol Shoguns).
