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Dan Thomas secures Wales return after 10 years in Premiership

By PA
Dan Thomas of Bristol Bears looks on during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Leicester Tigers and Bristol Bears at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on March 25, 2023 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

Flanker Dan Thomas has ended his seven-year spell at Bristol by joining Cardiff.

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Thomas, 30, made 144 appearances for the Bears but now follows fellow Welshman Callum Sheedy in moving from Ashton Gate to Cardiff Arms Park ahead of the 2024-25 season.

“I am a proud Welshman and to be able to return home to Wales with Cardiff was a big pull in my decision,” Carmarthen-born Thomas told the club website.

“Being able to play in the URC is also something that appealed to me given the challenge of going up against so many different playing styles in different countries and environments.”

Thomas spent three years at Gloucester before joining Bristol.

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Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt said: “I’m really pleased to bring Dan on board ahead of next season and feel he is a really good fit for the club.

“He suits our attacking playing style as a fast and dynamic openside, who is effective on both sides of the ball and has a lot of experience from the Premiership.”

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Tom 1 hour ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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