Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:05 am  

Unfortunately for Thomas though he's joined RL in the twighlight of his career so i'll be amazed if he makes a name for himself in this sport.

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:38 am  

Grendel wrote:

He was put in the jersey before he'd picked up the skills he needed. He was a big name convert so it was the right thing to do though. He's big enough and hard enough to take it.

Much is made of the fact he came off concussed. YAAAAAWN so what? He's been concussed bafore and will be again. He's been tackled harder and faster by bigger men than were on that field. League has nothing like Jonah Lomu in his prime and Gareth had that experience. Brought him down a few times too if my ropey memory can be relied on.

Gareth was injured because of Gareth's inexperience not because he had the temerity to wander into a game played by superhumans.

He needs to learn League quickly and unlearn bits of Union. Only because his age is against him and he has little time left.

There'd be no point in sending him to SWS to ply his trade, because half our team are union converts on their first year of League too.


From what I've seen, if he can CONVERT his existing skills to this code (and I've no doubt he can) League holds nothing for him to fear.

hhmmm....rugby union tackles are hardly the above, maybe by bigger men but not by more atheltic fitter men

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 12:41 pm  

Grendel wrote:

He was put in the jersey before he'd picked up the skills he needed. He was a big name convert so it was the right thing to do though. He's big enough and hard enough to take it.

Much is made of the fact he came off concussed. YAAAAAWN so what? He's been concussed bafore and will be again. He's been tackled harder and faster by bigger men than were on that field. League has nothing like Jonah Lomu in his prime and Gareth had that experience. Brought him down a few times too if my ropey memory can be relied on.

Gareth was injured because of Gareth's inexperience not because he had the temerity to wander into a game played by superhumans.

He needs to learn League quickly and unlearn bits of Union. Only because his age is against him and he has little time left.

There'd be no point in sending him to SWS to ply his trade, because half our team are union converts on their first year of League too.


From what I've seen, if he can CONVERT his existing skills to this code (and I've no doubt he can) League holds nothing for him to fear.

Size isn't anything when compared to fitness, athleticism and general hardness.

I have nothing against the bloke and good luck to him but I'll be surprised if he actually achieves a great deal in RL. Regardless of talent, age is against him along with getting his Body and mind up to speed with RL, Recovery times and time is generally against him full stop.

A nice bit of publicity for The Crusaders though, and good on you for doing so.

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 1:16 pm  

Grendel wrote:

He was put in the jersey before he'd picked up the skills he needed. He was a big name convert so it was the right thing to do though. He's big enough and hard enough to take it.

Much is made of the fact he came off concussed. YAAAAAWN so what? He's been concussed bafore and will be again. He's been tackled harder and faster by bigger men than were on that field. League has nothing like Jonah Lomu in his prime and Gareth had that experience. Brought him down a few times too if my ropey memory can be relied on.

Gareth was injured because of Gareth's inexperience not because he had the temerity to wander into a game played by superhumans.

He needs to learn League quickly and unlearn bits of Union. Only because his age is against him and he has little time left.

There'd be no point in sending him to SWS to ply his trade, because half our team are union converts on their first year of League too.


From what I've seen, if he can CONVERT his existing skills to this code (and I've no doubt he can) League holds nothing for him to fear.

agreed he got injured through his own stupidity nothing else however a lomu at his peak was nothing compared to a Morley special.

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:44 pm  

Took a heavy knock out of habit really. Awful (dangerous) body positioning. I suppose when you've played the "other" code for so long it's conditioned into you. A whole two weeks of RL training in his life probably isn't enough to be running into SL forwards, no matter how athletic he may be. As Grendel says, if he can convert the skills he does have, then he'll be an asset.

Beats Dwayne Chambers.

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:26 pm  

Like I say, props in Union are fatties who are designed to push. He'll never have met anyone like Ferriol before.

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:48 pm  

headhunter wrote:

Like I say, props in Union are fatties who are designed to push. He'll never have met anyone like Ferriol before.

You ARE joking aren't you?

The average Union No 8 or flanker is bigger and harder than Ferriol. All he has is a bit of momentum because of the differing rules of the game. If the structure of the game allows big fellas to run fast, they do.

Hell I could easily pick half a dozen Welsh forwards as big and fast and hard as Ferriol.

You know, I prefer league as a game over Union (even if my team was nicked), but there is nothing, repeat NOTHING for top level union boys to fear from league except some childish "point-proving" dirty tackling from some of the thicker, more spiteful League players.

And this goes the other way too, when League players go to Union.

League is the BETTER game. That's all. It's a DIFFERENT skill set, not a HARDER skill set. League players are not bigger, harder, braver or any of that other bovine excrement. Neither are Union players.

It is probably the thing most likely to put me off League OR Union (cos they say it too) this childish "my cok's bigger than your cok" rubbish.

Thomas getting concussed in his first game proved one thing ONLY. You can't learn a new code in 2 weeks and perform at the very top level (no tedious comments about the NRL please Dally). Nothing else.

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:54 pm  

Grendel wrote:

League is the BETTER game. That's all. It's a DIFFERENT skill set, not a HARDER skill set. League players are not bigger, harder, braver or any of that other bovine excrement. Neither are Union players.

The average Union No 8 or flanker is bigger and harder than Ferriol.

Make your mind up.

FWIW, I never suggested that Union does not have big players. But Union props are fatties who's main job is static pushing. Whereas league props have to be a lot more mobile and are designed to make shots and win collisions. If you are trying to deny this, then you clearly know nothing about either sport because it is a simple principle. And if you think league is not a harder game physically to play, you are also deluded, the very nature of the game means that it clearly is going to be so. And I'm not saying that Thomas getting knocked out proves this, that Union does not have some good athletes or anything else, but league has always been tougher to play and always will be due to the rules of the game. I know Wales has good athletes playing Union, I've seen them first hand and it's a damn shame that they are playing a code where they can't properly use their attributes and skills.

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:33 pm  

chubbs1981 wrote:

Agreed the guy knocked on for his first ever tackle the shame of it seen it done it got the tshirt yup he has now! Nothing will faze him? But the first hit dazed him welcome to the big league boyo

wot a nob head..!! im just glad he hasnt got a serious injury.

christ he clashed his head against a hip any player on that field would have the same injury..!!!

tit.!

he was brave enough to carry on for 30 mins.

plenty of game time left in the rest of the season for him

Re: Gareth Thomas be warned! : Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:37 pm  

chubbs1981 wrote:

agreed he got injured through his own stupidity nothing else however a lomu at his peak was nothing compared to a Morley special.

love off.!!!

are you real..!!!

lomu was super human.!!