My Life in Rugby: Arwal Thomas – former Wales, Neath and Bristol fly-half

My punch on Philippe Carbonneau is probably still the rugby moment most people ask me about and it’s even got to the stage where my son talks about it at school.
Wales were playing in Paris in 1997 and France scrum-half Carbonneau hit me so I reacted, caught him and knocked him out, I was lucky to get away with it but I guess that’s the advantage of being a 10st fly-half, no one thought it could be me.
The funny thing was that a few years later I went over to France to play for Pau and he was our skipper and my half-back partner.
They had a bit of a joke at our expense by putting us together as training partners. Thankfully he was a great bloke, as well as a top player, and we were able to laugh about it.
By then I’d stopped playing for Wales and looking back I realise I just wasn’t prepared at all for being in that No.10 jersey.
I was a little naive and just didn’t realise what a big deal it was. It didn’t help having someone like Neil Jenkins behind me if I missed a kick.
We weren’t a great team at the time, so those small margins often made a massive difference and the pressure was huge.
I’d like to think I gave it everything but a tiny fly-half probably wasn’t best suited to that Welsh team. We didn’t have a great pack.
It changed a little bit in 1997 when we got a few of the Rugby League boys back in and we had a pretty decent team that year.
At Murrayfield we played really well and it was probably one of my best games, I scored a try and we won 34-19.
I really thought that year we could have won the Five Nations but it didn’t work out. We lost in Paris when we could have won. I didn’t play the England game.
I kept at it but I really wasn’t ready for everything that came with it and then when Graham Henry came in things changed. I got a couple of chances but he had his plan and I didn’t really feature in what he wanted. It’s still a bitter pill when someone like Shane Howarth was brought in and he wasn’t even Welsh.
My last game was against South Africa. A week earlier I’d had a great game for Swansea in the Heineken Cup against Stade Francais. I’d knocked over three drop goals and it went really well, so the next week Graham sent me on, telling me to win us the game.
I missed all three drop goal attempts, not by much but I missed. That was my chance and I didn’t take it.
I look at someone like Shane Williams, who was in a similar position, but then when he got another opportunity he took it.
After that I kept playing for Swansea but when the regions arrived I found myself out in the cold.
I’d been very involved in everything to do with going from clubs to regions so it was a bit of a shock when I got a call to say that I needed to check because my name wasn’t on the list.
It was something about budgets but I found myself without a club and that’s when I went to France.
I loved it there but we only ended up staying a year because my wife missed home and then I played at places like Harlequins and the Scarlets.
I finished up at Neath where I’d played a bit as a youngster, and loved it in the Welsh Premiership.
I’m involved with some ‘legends’ games and will be in Australia for the Lions but I work away from rugby.