In my opinion your initial post was petty.

Clearly if you watch the game he took it in a good few times and was looking for work while he was on. If you only saw 2 drives and he could not handle it then i suggest you watch it again.

Clearly I've hit a nerve?

Everyones allowed their opinion and I dont think Thomas will make it in League. Not many 35 year old blokes would! He took one big hit and lost the ball, ran the ball in the wrong way got himself injured and went off - ie he couldnt handle it!

He was lucky that Catalan didnt target his side (for what reason i'll never know) or else it could have been even worse.

Mate you have not hit a nerve, i simply found your initial post very petty and inaccurate/ignorant.

Fair play you do not think he will make it, that is your opinion, but at least be honest about the events. He took 2 heavy knocks from poor technique, but your initial post seems to point that is all he did, which is far from the case.

He actually looked busy took it up more than most wingers normally do, and was involved in a try saving tackle.

10 out of 10 for effort, 3 out of 10 for technique. He will be just fine.

i never expected a world class performance.

its like asking a hockey player to become an ice hockey player overnight.

We have the most brutal of both codes. but he will be ok.

It was interesting to hear his after match comments, and some will see this as being born out of my opinion of Noble as a coach, but Thomas did say something when asked about the way he took it in along the lines of "Brian asked me to find the ground as soon as possible", if that was the case another example of a poor call from BN.

I see what Noble's saying, find the floor and get a quick play the ball away. There's not a lot of point in a winger fighting for extra ground off a scoot, better to get a roll on, Dallas and Carney were polar opposites on this point.

I didn't hear him attribute it to Brian, but I might be wrong. Either way, it's a good call - a quick ptb in your own half can add valuable metres to your progress. It's a common tactic and precisely why the whole 'SURRENDER/DOMINANT' call was introduced.

No point using lots of precious seconds fighting when you can put the defence on the back foot.

Well there's finding the floor quickly and ducking your head down before contact has even been made, which is what happened the first time he got his bell rung. He was still in the Union mode of setting up the ruck and presenting the ball, as oppose to wrestling in the tackle and winning the contact area as we do in Rugby League. It's not a difficult concept so it shouldn't take Thomas too long to pick it up and once he does he'll be ok. Not the best back in SL like some on here have suggested though

I'd kind of forgot something here, casting my mind back to when I was at Uni and we were coming across lads that had only ever played Union, I remember some players had this bizarre habit of diving head first into tackles. Ironically this made them incredibly easy to tackle, but also I couldn't help thinking that it was a serious injury waiting to happen. This was echoed tonight with Thomas.

Fair does to the fella, his attitude etc are flawless, whether he will make it in rugby I don't know... RL and RU are two very different sports, he looked very lost at times and against a ruthless side could've been in for a very tough time. Targetting him for a few tackles on the bounce may have opened up some serious holes.

RL is getting to a point now where it is a very tough game. Bringing over any Union player is a big gamble, paying someone good wedge that may need a few months to learn the game is a big commitment for a team with a salary cap, and maybe concessions should be made.

He has the physical attributes, whether he has the skills and the time is another matter, but I wish him all the best for having a go.

Actually i think he was saying timeoff

Its a good call if he is technically up to it, but clearly he was not, it was a plain dangerous call in my opinion.

As for his Union conditioning kicking in when going into contact i have to say that was no union carry either, you would lose the ball every time you took it in if you did that.

His best carry by far when he held his feet and took it in strongly. The best part of his game in union was his strong carry, could not understand that diving to the floor tactic at all.

1 drive = mistake
2 drives = subbed





Hopefully he can get to his feet in the game sooner rather than later.

I was a bit dissapointed tbh but like people have said, This was his first game in league and it would be silly to of expected a big game from him. No one can fault his effort, he looked really eager and up for it. There is still a lot of work for him to do yet i feel. Especially the play the ball which to me seemed very very slow.

That first hit on him seemed to take it out of him though which may of effected his game who knows. Even at 35 with the enthusiasm he seems to be showing theres no reason why given a little bit more time Thomas shouldnt be able to have a good impact on the game.

IMO it was best for him to debut against Catalans without any halfbacks otherwise a ruthless halfback such as Brough or Briers would have peppered him all night. I would play him in the reserves next week and then play him against Harlequins the week after, an opposition who are poor and then see how he goes, if Sherwin plays he could get peppered next week.

He did alright last night, he was nervous and you could see it but I believe he can do well in league as long as he gets few games under his belt against not very good opposition to bring him up to speed with league and build some confidence.

He took the ball in well and any player who would have run head first into Ferriol would have come off the same way, he was keen to get involved and really should be playing outside of a mouthy experienced centre to tell him what to do. I look forward to seeing how he progresses and when he next plays on sky I think there will be a big improvement.

A ridiculous decision to play him and a rather ridiculous performance from a man who clearly thinks the human cannonball is a fantastic role model for Rugby League.

Strangest thing has to be that he played instead of Youngquest who must be gutted that he plays well this season and plays well when he comes on for Thomas and yet seemingly gets benched simply because he isn't a Union has-been with a profile.

The more suspicious amongst us may think that the showing of this game by Sky on a night (when there were clearly 3 better games that we'd have rather watched on the box) may have come about solely because the powers that be are trying to desperately sell the Crusaders to the Welsh and the appearance of Thomas created the justification for showing a poor game on TV.

The fixture was listed as being shown on TV long before Thomas signed.

Agree regards Younquest although he has been poor to average in the early rounds he found his feet last week and it was a tough call to drop him. Showed up well when he came on.

having watched the game again this morning. I can not understand why catalans did not heap more preasure on him while he was on. the end result could have been alot different had the done this. he clearly needs more time to adjust. Catalan should have took advantage of that.

Again one of the reasons Thomas was signed was due to the leadership he brings. He'll play a massive role in the match build up and training.

He's also been brought in to rustle up some media interest as well. I'd say it's worked, how many times would there have been a five page thread on here about Catalans vs Crusaders? There are numerous pages likes this all over the site as well.

What about those teeth !!!!!!!!, does he have the same dentist as Shane MacGowan ?

I agree, but speaking from changing room experience he needs to improve his game very quickly, there is only so long you can talk like a leader and not lead on the pitch.

It was always going to be televised, it was the first Non-English Super League game.

This is the big problem for Noble - Crusaders don't have a reserve team to bed him in via.

Apart from last season...

18th man him, I wouldn't play him against Cas I think he will struggle.

Scorpions.