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Ben Thomas explains Wales' 'fall back in love' mission
By PA
Ben Thomas has insisted that Wales’ focus for people to “fall back in love with Welsh rugby” will continue when they resume their Guinness Six Nations campaign against Scotland. It is less than three weeks since Matt Sherratt took the coaching reins on an interim basis after Warren Gatland’s departure following 14 successive Test match defeats.
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Sherratt’s startling impact saw him turn Wales around from a team humbled by Italy to one that gave Six Nations title favourites Ireland easily their biggest challenge of this season’s tournament.
Although Wales lost 27-18, the performance and what centre Thomas calls the “licence to play” Sherratt has issued highlighted a transformation that augers well for remaining Six Nations appointments with Scotland and England.
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“We wanted to bring some positivity back,” Thomas said. “Ultimately, there is a lot that is out of your control in terms of getting results, so we had a big focus on playing a game of rugby and a brand of rugby that would get people excited, to almost fall back in love with Welsh rugby.
“And I suppose it doesn’t change next week. The process has to be the same. We will put our best game out on the field and hopefully the result goes our way. I wasn’t surprised with how he [Sherratt] took to it because he has got a brilliant rugby brain.
“That is clear for everyone to see by the way he coaches Cardiff. The challenge would have been trying to get things across in such a small period of time, but the way he delivers messages is pretty clear and the boys were able to pick things up quite well.”
Wales will arrive at Murrayfield next Saturday with an impressive recent record, having won six of the last eight Six Nations games against Scotland in Edinburgh.
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Sherratt looks likely to name an unchanged starting line-up, with his match day 23 potentially being reinforced by a return for fit-again Ospreys hooker Dewi Lake, who captained Wales in Australia last summer and throughout the 2024 Autumn Nations Series.
Thomas added: “The mood has been pretty positive. It is an exciting way to play rugby to go out there and just try and throw as many punches as possible. We probably came off the pitch after the first two matches (against France and Italy) feeling we hadn’t fired any shots at the opposition.
“The Rome game was in pretty poor conditions and it wasn’t maybe the game for that. But to come off against Ireland, knowing that we had been in the game for the most part – and were able to put our game on the pitch, as opposed to just absorbing what was being thrown at us – was pretty pleasing for us.”
Thomas, who started the Six Nations as Wales fly-half before moving to a more familiar inside centre role against Ireland, readily acknowledges the impact Sherratt has had on him in his day-job at Cardiff.
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“It [12] is probably a position I am more comfortable in, especially given that we played a similar style of game-plan to what we play at Cardiff, so it was pretty simple for me to fall back into,” Thomas said.
“When I first met him, he was pretty clear on the fact he likes playing with a ball-playing 12. He was able to really help me develop my game in ways I hadn’t thought of at that time.”
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The Welsh didn’t fall out of love with rugby, it was just what Wales were offering. Thomas? Not a Wales 10 and I can’t see where else he’d be good enough to cover
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