Aled Thomas (born 2 January 1985) is a Welsh rugby union player. A

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

, who plays for the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...

in the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

. Aled Thomas first joined the Scarlets in 2004, making his first appearance in the Celtic League match against Ulster in Ravenhill. Following spells playing for Newport Gwent Dragons and

London Welsh London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seaso ...

, He signed for the

as cover for the 2011 Rugby World Cup . Thomas has represented Wales at all Junior age group levels and at Sevens level. On 7 March 2009, Thomas was part of the squad that won the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens, scoring the winning try in the final against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. On 24 March 2014, Thomas signed a two-year deal to play for

Gloucester Rugby Gloucester Rugby are a professional rugby union club based in the West Country city of Gloucester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby, as well as in the European Rugby Champions Cup. The club was formed in ...

in the Aviva Premiership for the 2014–15 season. On 13 February 2015, Thomas made a surprise return to the Wales Sevens squad to take part in the 2015 USA Sevens held in Las Vegas, as part of the 2014–15 Sevens World Series. After one season with Gloucester, Thomas was granted his early release to rejoin his home region

in Wales for his third spell at the region, from the 2015–16 season. On 22 April 2015, Thomas was selected for the

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be les ...

, as they defeated Scottish club Heriot RFC 97-13 in a friendly match, as part of their 125th Anniversary Special for both clubs. On 17 June 2016, Carmarthen Quins announced that Thomas had been appointed as backs coach. On 6 May 2017, Thomas took to Twitter to announce his retirement from rugby. It is believed he will continue his coaching career with Carmarthen Quins following the end of his playing career.

References

External links

*
Scarlets Profile

Gloucester Rugby Profile

Wales Sevens Profile
* 1985 births Living people Dragons RFC players London Welsh RFC players People educated at Bro Myrddin Welsh Comprehensive School Rugby union players from Carmarthenshire Scarlets players Welsh rugby union coaches Welsh rugby union players {{Wales-rugbyunion-bio-stub