Young Guns: England U20s & Sale scrum-half Nye Thomas

Nye Thomas has completed his time in the England U20s set up and is hoping to continue developing at Sale Sharks as he targets more game time with the Premiership runners-up.

The 20-year-old scrum-half made 10 appearances across the Six Nations and World Championship last season.

England finished fourth in the World Championship and Thomas says the group is developing as a result of new head coach Mark Mapletoft’s tactics.

He said: “It was good fun. We were playing some nice stuff as ‘Tofty’ (Mapletoft) came in and introduced a few Harlequins style No.9 things where I’m jumping around playmaking which suits me.

“After finishing fourth in the Six Nations, I think a lot of people were expecting us to flop but the game plans Tofty put in place really helped us and gave us more structure rather than being a bit all over the place.

“He didn’t changed much because he came in with very little time to prepare us, and most of the players were from the Six Nations that Dicko (Alan Dickens) put in place. But Tofty had a bit more structure about when we kick, how we want the kicking to be and more tactics around midfield. So, that’s now less of a grey area.”

Liverpool-born Thomas had to quickly adjust to Premiership rugby as he made his Sale debut at 18 just months after finishing school due to a scrum-half injury crisis at the club.

“I made my debut two months out of school in the Premiership against Northampton in 2021/22 as we were down to the bare bones at nine,” he said. “That was crazy because I was just over 10 stone wet through, so going on was a bit terrifying and I tried not to get caught.”

Thomas played four times for Sale last season and is enjoying learning from fellow nines Gus Warr and Raffi Quirke at the club.

He added: “It’s good because we stick together and help each other out with pointers for what we can improve on. We’ve got Raffi’s attacking edge and then Gus’ game management, so it really is the best of both worlds.

“I came in during Alex Sanderson’s first proper year, so he was still implementing a lot of stuff. He’s made such a difference since coming in. It’s a really good, positive, friendly environment but when you need to, you get drilled hard.”

A livewire player, Thomas’ strength is sniping around rucks, trying to get the props to bite so he can step them.

However, with Sale’s conservative style of play Thomas, who was out on loan at Championship side Caldy last year, knows he needs to make sure his box kicking is up to scratch.

He said: “I’m probably a bit more loose compared to others. I’d prefer to run it rather than sitting in the pocket and box kicking and passing but with Sale I’ve got to improve on that. I need to make sure they are accurate first and second make sure they are really consistent.

“I want to try and get as many Prem appearances as possible this season or if not develop on loan and put my best foot forward.”

BEN JAYCOCK