[i"You hear that Neo? That is the sound of inevitability".[/i....

How can you compare Gareth Thomas to Dwain Chambers? One is a rugby legend with over 100 caps, former British Lions captain and record international try scorer, the other is a headless chicken?

Fellow poster Dux asked me what I think about it, given that I'm more familiar with the unioin code, since I've had a lot of experience playing that code. I'm sure he won't mind me sharing the content






Those who are convinced that just because he's from union he'll be an [iautomatic [/ifailure are not only about 15 years out of date in terms of many of their veiws on union, but are aslo forgetting all the good cross code players we've had over the years.

If they're both dismal failures the comparison is perfectly valid.

He's a publicity signing and nothing else. How many other 35 year olds are playing in Super League and yet some people are thinking that a guy who hasn't played the game before and is used to making a couple of tackles a match is suddenly going to be able to meet the grade in this game. I remain to be convinced.

At his peak he had the attributes to make an excellent RL player.

However im somewhat sceptical about how he hcan adjust to the intensity of RL at 35 years of age.

While wing and Centre are probably the most similar positions between League and Union there are still differences.

For example in League a winger is expected to take the ball into the tackle a good 10-15 times a match. They are also expected to be good at taking high balls from kicks.
As a result we see that the modern day winger is generally a fairly stocky in frame. They are quick, but out and out pace isnt a prime requirement these days, its more a bonus.

In RU the winger is not expected to get involved in any form of midfield play. The thought of wingers forming rucks and mauls horrifies union people. That is the job of the forwards. The game itself also has more breaks in play. Union features little of the cross field bombardment that RL wingers face. Its also rare for a RU winger to need to make a tackle. The ability to kick of football out of hand is however a useful skill.

As a result of this, a RU winger does not need the stamina, or physical size to take the ball into the tackle, as is required in League. They can therefore concentrate on explosive pace and acceleration, within a more lightweight frame. This enables them to exploit the few opportunities that come their way
In many respects the RU winger is more akin to the RL winger of old.

Thomas is lucky in that he is quite a large person for a RU wing, but i expect he will still need to work on his physical frame, in order to be able to handle the workload required of a rl wing.

We (Warrington) have a former RU conditioner, Wigan also. We had one prior to Halmsley. They must have something about them.

Coming from Union, he'll have a lot less miles on the clock than a league player s at 35 he may get through a season.

Ours is also an NFL conditioner

The Crusaders may do well with the signing of Thomas, it will get them into such as school's and allow them to use him in club PR work, he may also pull others RU players in Wales to the game. Some people think he stands no chance in RL, I'm not sure, he was seen many times watching the Crusaders last season. Let's give him a chance at least to prove himself.