Jet-lagged Thomas can’t wait to get going

GARETH THOMAS fell asleep watching the Lions play Taranaki on Wednesday night but he insisted it was no reflection on the quality of rugby being beamed into his Auckland hotel room.

The Wales full-back, 30 next month and known as ‘Alfie’ to all and sundry, was still battling the effects of jet lag following his late arrival in New Zealand to join Clive Woodward’s squad. While he saw his new team-mates weather a Taranaki storm in New Plymouth, fatigue prevented him from witnessing the sealing of the 36-14 victory at the Yarrow Stadium.

“I watched the first 60 minutes all right, but I was still jet lagged and I’m not sure about the last 20,” Thomas said as he made his first media appearance alongside fellow latecomer Jason Robinson at the opening of a British & Irish Lions Superstore in Auckland.

Thomas’s delayed arrival was due to club commitments with newly-crowned Heineken Cup champions Toulouse, whose pursuit of the coveted French Championship title kept the Welshman with his employers until their exit at the semi-final stage to Stade Francais last weekend.

Despite being relieved to have at last hooked up with the touring party, Thomas insisted he had not been frustrated by his enforced stay in France.

“My commitment to Toulouse has been the same as any club I’ve played for - I give 100 per cent. I realised I was missing things but it was a sacrifice I knew I was making and a sacrifice I was prepared to make.

“I was gutted, devastated, we lost that semi-final, I won’t hide that fact. I really wanted to get to the final with the boys, play in a France championship final, but if you’re going to lose then it’s not bad that I lose and get a chance to fly out here.”

Meanwhile, both Thomas and Robinson, who remained in England to be with his wife as she goes through a difficult pregnancy, have seen Josh Lewsey and then Geordan Murphy make impressive claims to the No. 15 shirt for the first test against the All Blacks in Christchurch on June 25.

Lewsey was outstanding in the tour opener against Bay Of Plenty in Rotorua last Saturday, while Murphy responded with a two-try performance against Taranaki.

Asked if he felt he had some catching up to do now, Thomas replied: “Definitely, but for me, everyone here is saying ‘I want to make the Test team’, and that’s the nature of the thing. Everyone wants that but I’ve come here and my objective is to make it a successful tour, to be a part of that.”

Coach Woodward has signalled it is a leadership role he wants for Thomas, the most capped player in the 45-man squad with 83 appearances for Wales. Yet the man who was captaining Wales to a Grand Slam earlier this year before a broken thumb against France brought his campaign to a premature end sees that part being fulfilled in a low-key manner.

“I know my station,” he said. “If I’ve got something to say and people want to listen then I’ll say it but I haven’t come here especially to talk up.”

Just as the main squad did on their touchdown in Auckland from London on May 27, incoming players to this Lions party have been carefully managed on their arrival by fitness and conditioning coach Dave Reddin.

This has been in an effort to ease them through the jet lag and not rush them onto the training field, a matter some players and team doctor James Robson said they felt was mis-handled on the 2001 tour to Australia, when Graham Henry’s squad was asked to train on the day of their arrival in Perth.

Ian McGeechan this week jokingly complained that the “Reddin Regime” had denied him access to the new boys and while realising the importance of proper acclimatisation to the change of time zones halfway round the world, Thomas also expressed his frustration at not being able to throw himself into his work.

“I’m really looking forward to the moment I can put my boots on and run out with the guys for the first time. I’ll feel a lot more a part of it once I can do that.”

The jet lag, though, had not dulled his sense of humour. With the glut of in-form full-backs on tour with the Lions, and the battle raging between the fly-halves, Thomas was questioned on possible alternative positions in the side for him, maybe on the wing or at centre.

“I think it’s obvious,” declared the Welshman. “Everyone is talking about who is going to play at No.10 and I’m the only man for the job! There’s no argument for that, that’s the end of it.”