Blood & Mud

On the sexuality, gay or otherwise, of Gareth Thomas

Alfie in a previously comparable revelatory moment
  
From the point of view of this blog, we don't care which gender he chooses to canoodle with, it is about as relevant to us as where he likes to buy his underpants from.  But, from the point of view of the sport this is a big moment.

I must admit that this was no great surprise.  I lived and played rugby in Cardiff between 1998 and 2004, and it was pretty much common knowledge, or at least a rumour too prevalent to be untrue, that the big man was gay.  I can remember one incident I actually witnessed where someone shouted "Gayboy!" at him out of the window of a restaurant on St Mary Street.  Thomas was livid and had to be restrained by some mates to prevent him from going in and pasting the fella; there was always a little bit of the 'I think he doth protest too much' about it all.

Anyway, back to the larger point.  Very few high profile sportsmen come out as gay, Aussie RL prop Ian Roberts is the only other in rugby to have done so.  The difference between him and Alfie is that he was obviously not kicking against it as much as the Welshman - he was never married - so his coming out was perhaps less complex than Thomas's. 

What Thomas does have in common with Roberts is that they are both players of the very highest calibre.  Gareth Thomas captained Wales to a Grand Slam, their first in 27 years, and at the end of the day that is all that history will care about.  That and the fact that they could both batter every single person that reads this blog.  On their own.  Blindfolded.  With one arm sellotaped to an ox.

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On the sexuality, gay or otherwise, of Gareth Thomas

Alfie in a previously comparable revelatory moment
  
From the point of view of this blog, we don't care which gender he chooses to canoodle with, it is about as relevant to us as where he likes to buy his underpants from.  But, from the point of view of the sport this is a big moment.

I must admit that this was no great surprise.  I lived and played rugby in Cardiff between 1998 and 2004, and it was pretty much common knowledge, or at least a rumour too prevalent to be untrue, that the big man was gay.  I can remember one incident I actually witnessed where someone shouted "Gayboy!" at him out of the window of a restaurant on St Mary Street.  Thomas was livid and had to be restrained by some mates to prevent him from going in and pasting the fella; there was always a little bit of the 'I think he doth protest too much' about it all.

Anyway, back to the larger point.  Very few high profile sportsmen come out as gay, Aussie RL prop Ian Roberts is the only other in rugby to have done so.  The difference between him and Alfie is that he was obviously not kicking against it as much as the Welshman - he was never married - so his coming out was perhaps less complex than Thomas's. 

What Thomas does have in common with Roberts is that they are both players of the very highest calibre.  Gareth Thomas captained Wales to a Grand Slam, their first in 27 years, and at the end of the day that is all that history will care about.  That and the fact that they could both batter every single person that reads this blog.  On their own.  Blindfolded.  With one arm sellotaped to an ox.