London Welsh v Rotherham Titans: Thomas joins Titans' Gloucester brigade

The 23-year-old flanker has played 11 times for Gloucester, after making a name for himself with Llanelli and his national age-group team.

He goes straight into the Titans’ first team for today’s trip to London Welsh in the British and Irish Cup.

Rotherham head to the capital on the back of a 34-17 victory over South Yorkshire rivals Doncaster Knights in the opening round of fixtures last week.

“We had a good win and performance against Doncaster,” said Justin Burnell, the Titans head coach who steered London Welsh into the Premiership earlier this decade. “We made 13 changes going into that game and the boys who came in did well; but like anything else we aren’t blessed with a pecking order and we haven’t got first-, second- and third-choice players, we’ve got a squad and that showed.

“And it’s not like the boys who came in haven’t played Championship rugby because most of them have and it wasn’t as though they were coming in from cold.

“We are also very fortunate to have the Gloucester boys at the moment and most of them will play against London Welsh.

“Welsh are the current B&I Cup holders, they had a good win at Munster last week and I would imagine they’d be looking to retain the title. I would also expect them to put out a strong side and we’ll need to perform well if we are going to give ourselves an opportunity.”

Doncaster’s game with Munster A has been postponed out of respect for the death of Anthony Foley.