![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_WML_140924_Gavin_Henson_41JPG.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe two Welshmen are set to work together next season, with a nearly 20-year age gap between them<\/p>\n
Henson returned to rugby with his boyhood team Pencoed five years after retiring from the professional game(Image: Mark Lewis)<\/p>\n
Wales fly-half Sam Costelow has joined the coaching staff of his boyhood club Pencoed RFC ahead of next season.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old, who won the latest of his 20 international caps during this year’s Six Nations<\/a>, hails from the town and began his career there as a young boy before going all the way to Test rugby via the Ospreys<\/a> academy, Leicester Tigers and the Scarlets<\/a>. Now, he is taking on a new role with the club’s senior side, who play in the WRU National League Divison 2 West.<\/p>\n Costelow has joined Pencoed’s set-up as attack and skills coach and will assist head coach Sean Donovan in the role during the 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n JOIN OUR WALES RUGBY FACEBOOK PAGE Latest news, analysis and much more<\/a><\/p>\n Confirming the appointment in a statement, the club said the fly-half had been brought in to “ignite our attacking play with top\u2011level insight and creativity,” adding that the new coaching and management team offers “a blend of experience and fresh energy”.<\/p>\n As well as Donovan and Costelow, Pencoed’s coaching team includes backs coach Marc Davies, contact area coach Tom Geere and assistant forwards coach and former club captain Kieron Moore. Win free tickets to watch Fiji v Wales in Cardiff this summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n In his new role, Costelow may well find himself in the position where he is coaching former Wales and British & Irish Lions star Gavin Henson, who is nearly 20 years his senior.<\/p>\n The two-time Grand Slam winner is another who has returned to his boyhood club, pulling his boots back on and representing the team over the past two seasons, five years on from his retirement from professional rugby.<\/p>\n After making a surprise return to the grassroots game, Henson has managed to roll back the years, with a trademark monster tackle leaving one of his amateur opponents flattened <\/a>earlier this year.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen whether he will continue playing for another season, but if he does, the 44-year-old is set to work closely with Costelow, having been playing at fly-half for Pencoed over the course of the campaign.<\/p>\n Speaking to BBC<\/a> Scrum V last year, the former centre admitted that he was “loving” being back playing with Pencoed, with his competitive streak not diminishing even away from the professional game.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m 43 now, so a bit old, as my wife tells me,” he said. “But I\u2019ve missed it, I\u2019ve missed the physicality of it, and being in a team environment again and trying to win.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very competitive, I like trying to win, that\u2019s the main thing. We have a good group of boys. We\u2019re aiming for promotion, so hopefully it will be a good season and great for the club.”<\/p>\n “I\u2019m playing 10,” he added. “I would like to play 12 but I am just not quite big enough yet. So I\u2019ll still try to aim to get there but 10 at the moment.”<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two Welshmen are set to work together next season, with a nearly 20-year age gap between them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[22142,203883,5903,19428,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-596518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-gavin-henson","tag-pencoed","tag-rugby","tag-scarlets","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}