Alan Watkins: Gareth Thomas deserves an apology from Llanelli

The rugby season has started in a familiar fashion. One of the traditions - it has been going on for so long now that it has to count as a tradition - is that there is supposed to be a new spirit abroad in my native land. At last the team are coming together. There are no stars in the firmament. Besides, what with injuries, and one thing and another, this season England are not the force they were. The time of the Welsh revival may finally have come.

Then we have the preliminary stages of the Heineken European Cup. Clearly, we, the Welsh, are not as good as we thought or hoped. There is disappointment all round, except at Llanelli. This time, there is disappointment at Llanelli too. On Friday they went down 6-9 to Toulouse at Stradey Park.

For reasons that will appear, I was not as despondent about the match as some, notably the coach, Gareth Jenkins, and the scrum-half, Dwayne Peel, who was rightly given the man of the match award by Stuart Barnes of Sky. It is quite rare for this award to be made to a member of the losing side and it was refreshing to see this narrow convention being breached.

Clearly, Stradey is no longer a Scarlet Citadel, if it ever was. In the past few seasons of the Heineken Cup, the home side have gone down to Perpignan and Biarritz. On Friday, not only did they lose to another French club. They did so before a disappointingly small crowd of under 8,000. Why, Swansea City in the lowest football division (though admittedly at its top) can pull in a bigger gate for a run-of-the-mill fixture.

But then, when they were Swansea Town, playing in the old Third Division (South), they would regularly attract a larger attendance than either the Swansea or the Llanelli rugby club, unless those clubs were playing the visiting touring team or, perhaps, Cardiff. So the pattern of relative attendances has not changed greatly over the years, except that Cardiff are no longer the powerful attraction they were in the days when they were the finest team in these islands - a change which is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of the game in Wales. There was something else about the crowd. That was the booing of the new Welsh captain, Gareth Thomas, who was playing for Toulouse in his old position, on the wing (though he was originally a centre), rather than in the position he will presumably occupy for his country at full-back.

The Sky commentators, Miles Harrison and Barnes, did not refer to the matter at all: it was as if it was not happening. Nor did another broadcaster raise it when Thomas, with his small son, was interviewed after the match. He certainly did not mention it himself. Indeed, he seemed to be in a thoroughly good humour, as well he might have been, having helped to secure an away win in the first stage of the Cup.

As far as I could see, he had committed no offence against a Llanelli Scarlets player. And yet the boos resounded whenever he touched the ball. The crime could only be that here was a Welsh player who had, in the autumn of his playing days, gone off to France, and happened by chance - by the luck of the draw - to be opposing the home side.

How would the crowd have responded if Stephen Jones, the old Scarlets outside-half, had returned to Stradey for his new club, Clermont-Auvergne, formerly Montferrand? One can only assume that the boos would have been louder and more prolonged.

It was a disgraceful happening - all the more so in view of the ground's long history of sportsmanship. Apologies are much in vogue these days. If anyone is owed an apology, Gareth Thomas is owed one by Llanelli rugby club. What, then, is there left for the Welsh supporter to be cheerful about? Well, for two-thirds or even three-quarters of the match the Scarlets dominated proceedings. Traditionally, they have never been famous for the power of their front five.

This time, the redoubtable John Davies put in a full 80 minutes rather than his customary 60 or even 40. Vernon Cooper, Christ Wyatt and Cooper's substitute, Adam Jones, towered over the line-out. Matthew Rees threw accurately until half-way through the second half, though I prefer to conclude that this was more because his jumpers became tired than because his aim went awry.

I do not even blame Arwel Thomas for trying to go for the line himself instead of giving the ball out. It was, after all, what Scott Gibbs did against England in 1999. But in modern rugby, ignoring an overlap is an even more mortal sin than losing possession.

The sad truth is, however, that Thomas kicked two out of five penalties, Gareth Bowen missed one, and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde kicked three out of three for Toulouse. Enough said.