Former England prop was one of first to switch allegiance under new World Rugby rules – but he did not feel at home until the banter began
Only when the mickey-taking began did Henry Thomas really ease into his bid for a World Cup spot with Wales.
It is not that the tighthead prop had encountered a frosty atmosphere prior to those first gags; quite the opposite. A decade after his England debut, which had arrived from the bench in Salta as Argentina were beaten 32-3, Thomas walked into a welcoming camp. Perhaps too welcoming.
“When I first arrived here, it was almost weird how nice everyone was to me,” he says. “I didn’t really feel accepted until I got a bit of banter from the boys. As soon as that happened, I relaxed a bit more. That’s more what you’re used to and what the environment is about. It was all a bit nicey-nicey at the start.”
Thomas identifies the chief ice-breakers. “I’m pretty certain it would have been either Corey Domachowski or Dan Biggar,” he adds, fingering his fellow front-rower and the veteran fly-half. “And Dan Biggar wasn’t even there for the first few weeks I was there, so it didn’t take him long! But we got there in the end.”