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Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas has released a video on Twitter after he was attacked in his home city of Cardiff.
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Thomas – rugby union’s first openly gay player – says he was the victim of a hate crime.
A clearly bruised Thomas gave a brief overview of the incident in the 38-second long video.
“This morning I’ve decided to make what hope will be a positive video. Last night was the victim, in my home city of a hate crime for my sexuality.
“Why I want it to be positive is because I wanted to say thank you to the police who were involved and who allowed me to do restorative justice, because I thought they could learn more that way than any other way.
“And also to the people of Cardiff who supported me, because there are a lot of people out there who want to hurt us. Unfortunately for them, there’s a lot more people who wanted to help us heal.”
— Gareth Thomas (@gareththomas14) November 18, 2018
The rugby community offered their support to Thomas on the social media platform.
Welsh scrumhalf Rhys Webb tweeted: “They Picked on the wrong person there mate. Hope your ok. You’ve got my full support”.
The BBC’s Jill Douglas wrote: “Well put Alfie – very sorry you had to experience this, but a typically positive and uplifting reaction.”
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Well put Alfie – very sorry you had to experience this, but a typically positive and uplifting reaction. Big??
— Jill Douglas (@JillADouglas) November 18, 2018
Gabby Logan also chipped in with: “Loads of love big man.”
Loads of love big man xx
— Gabby Logan (@GabbyLogan) November 18, 2018
The incident mars what was otherwise a happy evening for Welsh Rugby.
Wales cruised to an ultimately comfortable 74-24 victory over Tonga on Saturday.
Steff Evans, Tomos Williams, Tyler Morgan, Cory Hill, Aled Davies and Rhys Patchell all touched down before Liam Williams marked his big day with a second try.
Dan Biggar – back in the side having lost the number 10 shirt to Gareth Anscombe for last weekend’s victory over Australia – contributed 19 points, including 14 from the tee, to give coach Warren Gatland a selection headache ahead of next weekend’s visit of South Africa.
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The result extends Wales’ winning run to seven matches at home. Only once since 1978 have they enjoyed a longer such run – nine games between 1997 and 1999.
Comments on RugbyPass
One of the best pieces of satire I have read in the last decade. Bravo Ben, your talent knows no bounds
56 Go to commentsHaha, not rising to it loser.
56 Go to commentsFor my money Roigard is the one to likely challenge Dupont for the number one spot eventually, nevermind #2. As good as Gibson-park is, he doesn't have the raw talent and athletic ability that Roigard has to compete with Dupont. Probably the most exciting talent NZ has right now. Shame about the busted knee but he'll be back.
7 Go to commentsIs there anything worse than a Corkonian Eddie Jones with a chip on both shoulders? The little man doesn’t consider Ireland home unlike say Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell. He is not suitable to ever be an Ireland manager. He should stay in the parochial clubs he favours.
12 Go to commentsHe showed enough for the ABs at 10 last year to cast doubts aside. Few better players in the world when he is up flat and playing directly. The biggest risk to him and his future in the ABs is staying fit. If he can string a full SR and RC campaign together consecutively people will be talking about him as the best player in the world by the end of this year.
19 Go to commentsI clicked on page 100 Rugbypass should do a daily recap of content just gone 100+ pages. Love his HK league talk.
1 Go to commentsBen, who came second or runner up to Ireland in those champs? England or ABs. Was France also involved?
56 Go to commentsCome on. farther and uncle born in New Zealand, we can at least get enough kiwi acclaim in there to suggest he play club rugby in the south as well as for Samoa!
1 Go to commentsBen is a Kiwi columnist at RugbyPass who specialises in formulating bizarre arguments in which he aims to downplay the achievements of the South African rugby team. He lives with his cat in Auckland.
56 Go to commentsSPRINGSBOKS and IRLAND have one thing in common. Neither have lost a rugby world cup final.
56 Go to commentsIt’s a good and important documentary, but given that the primary subject is Abbie’s return to play it jars a bit to lead the article with three paragraphs primarily about Dave. He’s a lovely chap and obviously a part of the story, but the main challenges are hers, not his.
2 Go to commentsOf course he is. He plays for the best team in the world. However, he’s hit the cursed age of 32. The dreaded March of time and steady decline into oblivion has begun. 👀
7 Go to commentsThe fairest measurement of the top side is when all sides have time to prepare and have all players available and fresh. The annual mid year and end of year tours are wonderful, but often exclude players and also have one side either at end of tough season or still getting into things. The Irish, to their credit, have been dominant in the past 5 years in these mid year/end of year games, but they have almost all their players close by and playing similar styles. The SH sides need to ‘ fetch’ their squad from afar often, and also from different squads, so takes time to align the players. So, the WC cycle is the fairest time to measure, as all sides then are on same page.
56 Go to commentsThis is like claiming that the only reason Buck Shelford lifted Bill in 87 was because the Boks didn't play. But if that helps them sleep at night….
56 Go to commentsSo lekker for Ireland. Finally past quarterfinals, and fantastic performance with their 2 titles. Not sure who they beat in the finals, but very pleased for a great bunch of guys.
56 Go to commentsWhat’s Bilbao got to do with rugby? Also these scripted text speech’s are so cringe.
1 Go to commentsFake News: That’s not Taniela Tupou.
1 Go to commentsA full strength Bulls team would have its work cut out, pursuing an away win this weekend. And even if they pulled it off, they would be underdogs in the semis and final. Looks like Jake decided that a) he can’t play the same players in consecutive weeks, that b) splitting his best players between two teams would weaken both teams too much, and that c) picking between URC and Champions Cup he favors the former. So he has massively depowered the CC team. He seems to be taking some Leinster lessons very seriously.
2 Go to commentsAi doesn't wont ter be pikky abart yer Inglish, mait, butt yer kneed ter unnerstan dat itz ‘meet’ knot ‘met’ as in: “there are many times where the two tournament winners didn’t _meet_.” (muy italix). De yer gett it nah, mait?? So, apart from writing a load of crap, you also aren't much of a linguist either!
56 Go to commentsBen showed such strong cognitive bias in this one, that I had to conclude he'd just missed that it was no longer April the 1st.
56 Go to comments