Thomas happy to return to centre stage for Wales
Wales centre Ben Thomas is content with returning to his more comfortable position after starting this year's Six Nations tournament at fly-half.Thomas was employed in the number 10 jersey by former head coach Warren Gatland for the opening defeats against France and Italy.Matt Sherratt took the coaching reins on an interim basis after Gatland's departure following 14 successive Test match defeats and immediately handed the 26-year-old the role he plays for their region.Thomas acknowledges the impact Sherratt has had on him in his day-job - just as the Cardiff coach moved him back to inside centre on the Test stage to form a midfield partnership with Max Llewellyn and specialist fly-half Gareth Anscombe alongside them."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," said Thomas."When I first met him [Sherratt], 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."
Falling back in love with Welsh rugby
Thomas hopes the sense that people can "fall back in love with Welsh rugby" will continue when they resume their Six Nations campaign against Scotland in Edinburgh next Saturday.Sherratt's immediate impact saw him turn Wales around from a team humbled by Italy to one that gave Six Nations title favourites Ireland one of their biggest challenges of this season's tournament.Although Wales lost 27-18 for a record 15th successive Test match loss, 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."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 on Saturday with an impressive recent record, having won six of the last eight Six Nations games against Scotland in Edinburgh."The mood has been pretty positive," said Thomas."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."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."
Red card experiment
Thomas was involved in the incident which saw Ireland centre Garry Ringrose shown a 20-minute red card in Cardiff.Ringrose was dismissed in the 34th minute following head-on-head contact with the Wales centre.After the 20 minutes had elapsed, Ireland were able to bring on Bundee Aki with the British and Irish Lions centre outstanding in the final quarter.Despite Ireland benefitting from no permanent red card sanction, Thomas backs the new concept."To be honest, I don't mind it as a rule and I can understand why it is in place," said Thomas."Watching the World Cup final last year, as a spectator I was a little bit gutted it was going to be 14 against 15 for the game. "It was a bit frustrating we felt we'd got them on the ropes with 14 men and then they were back up to 15."He [Aki] was brilliant when he came on, so it was probably a bit of a double blow in that they've gone back up to 15 and brought a player of that quality on."
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