Do you stand by the comment he took it in twice?

At least there is no danger of rugby league messing up his pearly white showbiz smile.

I really dont care, it was just a number off the top of my head, but if you want to make a petty argument out of it then go ahead

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.