Run his name through youtube mate, hes a quality player

Oh and Alfie has played League, albeit at an amateur level for fun. he knows the rules.

What are you doing on here speaking sense and trying to use logic.

This board is for those who want to criticise, damn and have ago at any initiative whether it will work or not.

this particularly is the case with a welsh club and probably a London one.

the fact that it has come about just after the FA bottled out of taking on Homophobia and this shows that in RL is an inclusive sport is no reason to suggest it is a positive step.


you should be getting back to Red Hall talking the way you do. Shame on you Mr Barrett

Record number of caps for Wales. Captain of the British Lions. Wales recird try scorer till Shane surpassed him a year or two back. Captain of the Welsh side that won its first Grand Slam for 27 years back in '05. captain of the championship winning Bridgend Ravens prior to "regionalisation".

You may not have heard of him. But if this is not a rumour, you WILL.

2 years ago he would have been a cracking signing. Remember he won't be as burned out as a league equivalent at the same age, because he won't have been making 20 tackles and 20 carries per game. Still got abit of pace and is a very strong ball carrier.

I've always been a big fan of his

He would be good for Rugby league

=#FF0000Pse read the AUP on copyright. tb

Another positive it is getting League in the paper for the right reasons.

Ten fold if the signing is completed.

Is that video in slow motion?

Excellent publicity and a reasonable crowd puller I'm sure. Probably an ok signing as a player. Overall, it's a thumbs up from me.

First of many? If he goes, might be followed by a line of other players, who would do really well.

and i think thats the point, as a marketing idea its great, as a player he'll get smashed to death

I heard that Witt is a signing from RU? So perhaps Nobby knows how to bring RU players into the fold. I say give GT a go. It will be a media coup, too.

Witt played RL before that

I'd like to see these SL players that are going to smash Thomas, even at 36, to death. I really would.

He might not be a rampaging success but he wouldn't look out of place either.

I think he will be ok but he will have to play second row or something like that. He has never been quick at any stage of his career so i cant see him playing full back or centre. Could play wing though i suppose. It will be fascinating to see how he goes if he does indeed come over to RL.

This could be very good for young Welsh players if he were to play for Wales in the Euro cup, he would bring such a wealth of international experience (even if it's union) and show the young guns what it's all about!

Good publicity as well. It's almost a shame about his age, then again i'm not 36 so i don't know how hard it is to be that age and learn a new game!

We regard union as semi-retirement for older RL players with dodgy knees. If the rumours are true this guy's making a much harder career choice.

He was rightly admired for coming out. I hope he makes it in RL.

He's about 6'4 and 16-17st. Not quite as quick as he once was, but plenty fast enough. 36 or no he is a far better Union player than Jonathan Davies was (and twice as big) and HE didn't struggle too much with TGG as I recall.PLENTY of Welsh Union players did fine in League.

Remember, in Wales Union is a working man's game. This isn't the same as some rugger bugger toff "giving it a go". This is one of Welsh Union's most decorated players bringing TGG to a country that hasn't yet accepted its superiority over the other code.

It WILL make the South take note. Expect a flurry of brand new trolls. Many Union dinosaurs REALLY hate things that take the press away from Union. But once it settles, the WC will get a lot of press out of this.

And if it opens the floodgates down South, to the Scorps' benefit, you'll see that mostly Welsh RL team climbing the leagues before you know it.

Good on him - hope he signs, enjoys himself, does himself proud and bigs up RL in the media.

Don't really see any downside, there are some awful wingers in SL so I'm sure he'll be just fine.

It took Jiffy Davies 18 months to properly get to grips with Rugby League and about the same again before he was at his best in the code.

So if Thomas follows the same path then he'll be pushing 40 by the time we see the best of him.

I also think there were more hiding places in RL 20 years ago whereas now the game plans are much more structured and so individual weakness/inexperience tends to be exposed.

Good luck to him but, as I implied earlier, I think opposition coaches will be relishing the thought of his name on the Crusaders' teamsheet.

never heard of him but if hes a big name in wales union then a good move just for publicity

hell pay back his wages via higher crowds very quickly

When union players crossed over to league, the mantra was that the first season was a right-off because they weren't expected to do much more than adjust to the game.

Good on Alfie for giving it a go (if this is true) but I'm not sure that at his age and the fickleness of the modern fan that he will get a chance to make much impact.

Welsh rugby union isn't of much interest to many English league fans. I've heard of him and would recognise him if I met him but it's not so hard to believe that many Englishmen wouldn't.

Noble feels Thomas can crack the codes www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 029772.ece

Noble feels Thomas can crack the codes www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 029772.ece

If you've not heard of Gareth Thomas you must obsessively avoid the tabloid press, the sports channels, BBC1 and ITV and be generally ignorant of current affairs.