THREAD | The New Boys: Dan Thomas Another player coming from the West Country to the Arms Park, and back to Wales in this instance, is 30-year-old openside flanker Thomas who signs from Bristol.
After coming through the Academy at Scarlets, and earning Cymru D20 honours, he switched to Gloucester in 2014. Three years later he made the short hop to Bristol where he played 144 times in seven years at Ashton Gate. So who is the Dan Thomas coming back across the Bridge?
Defensively he's much more of a physical workhorse of an openside than perhaps we've seen in recent years with Ellis Jenkins and Thomas Young. A defensive leader who loves a low chop and presenting the turnover opportunity to others.
He's very physical through contact and seems to particularly enjoy the backs-to-the-wall confrontation of red zone defending.
That physicality comes through in his maul defence too, spotting a brief glimpse of the ball here and wasting no time to force the turnover on the floor.
And through contact Thomas has the upper body strength to hold ball carriers up and, as in this case, rip the ball away with relative ease before launching the counter attack.
Interestingly his jackal numbers aren't that high, with Bristol a team that does compete on the floor but values multi-skilled players over the ball. Thomas has the jackal technique, but it remains to be seen whether it was tactics or personal preference to stay on his feet.
It's in attack where he brings a real point of difference. A beautiful inside line and link up with a certain Callum Sheedy to make the line break here.
Another stunning line, but most impressive is the footowrk, handling and awareness to turn the line break into a try.
Thomas is also a threat in the wide channels with a good turn of pace. Seven years at Bristol under Pat Lam has certainly worn off on the flanker with his attacking mindset and skillset.
On turnover ball he's a key asset with his handling and vision. This miss-pass to take Elliot Daly out of the game gets Bristol breaking down the left wing.
And Bristol regularly used Thomas as the scrum-half at lineout time to link the forwards to the backs, allowing the actual scrum-half to remain in the back line and aid the width of the attack. That will be something Cardiff will have spotted.
And I'd love to see the Blue & Blacks encourage this from Thomas and others, stepping in at 9 to keep the ball moving at tempo, rather than waiting for the scrum-half to arrive.
Possibly a slightly different style of openside in defence to Thomas Young, but one that gives Matt Sherratt options to bulk up the physicality of the pack when required, without losing anything in their similar attacking outlook.
Thomas will also add more experience and leadership to the group with over 125 senior appearances and having been Cymru D20 captain, as well as a different viewpoint after a decade in different environments in England. A signing it's difficult to fault.
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