Trailblazer Thomas is stepping up for Sharks

NYE Thomas, the youngest scrumhalf in Sale Sharks' league history, was thrown in the deep end in October 2021 when, just six months after finishing his a-levels, he was called onto the bench for Sale's clash against Leicester Tigers amid an availability crisis.

- TOM JEFFREYS

Two games later, he made his debut off the bench vs Northampton.

Back then, he was a man for a crisis. Now, still aged only 21, it feels he's an established part of the furniture, stepping up at the beginning of this season given Raffi Quirke's wrist injury to add to his ten Premiership and European and eight Premiership Cup appearances for Sale.

Thomas' rise to reliability at such a young age has been rapid, if under the radar, and this season Alex Sanderson reckons he'll continue to develop ahead of schedule.

"He's wickedly sharp around the ruck" says Sanderson. "He speeds up the ball, he's nuggety, in the ruck - a lot of nines like the ball handed on a plate, but he's diving in there, wrestling it out, speeding the phase up. If there's any space around there with quick ball then he's going to snipe. He's been in the succession pipeline behind three really good scrum halves", explains Sanderson, who rewarded Thomas with a contract extension to 2026 in April.