Who is Teddy Thomas: Ten things you should know about the France wing

Teddy Thomas, who made his debut for France in 2014 against Fiji, has scored some brilliant tries for club and country. Here we tell you more about the winger…

Ten things you should know about Teddy Thomas

1. Teddy Thomas was born on 18 September 1993 in Biarritz, France. He stands at 6ft 1in (1.85m) and weighs 14st 2lb (90kg).

2. Thomas’s father hails from Mali, but the winger never knew him. “My father abandoned me shortly before my birth,” he told Midi Olympique in 2014. “I don’t want to judge him. I know neither the circumstances of his departure nor the ups and downs of his life, and honestly I don’t want to know them.”

3. He started his senior career at Biarritz and Racing 92, making his Top 14 debut against Toulon in 2013, and then he joined Racing 92 in 2014.

4. He represented France at U18, U20 and sevens level before making the step up to Test rugby.

5. Thomas scored a hat-trick in his first Test for France against Fiji – the first of the three tries being scored after just 42 seconds. The match took place in Marseille during the 2014 autumn Internationals and Thomas contributed 15 points in France’s 40-15 victory.

He followed up the hat-trick by scoring a brilliant individual try against Australia the following week.

6. In his first 25 Tests for France, he scored 14 tries, including doubles against Scotland and Argentina in 2018 and Italy in 2021.

7. Thomas was left out of Jacques Brunel’s France squad for the 2019 World Cup. He told Midi Olympique: “I had no feedback from the staff. But I understand. There were guys much better than me.

“I had a hard time having the slightest explanation. I naively thought I was part of an adventure, a project, and that was obviously not the case.”

8. Thomas scored a sensational solo try in Racing’s 49-7 European Champions Cup victory at Harlequins in December 2020. His club team-mate Teddy Iribaren said: “When you have Teddy beside you, you just have to give him the ball and he does the rest.”

9. On his left bicep, he has tattoos of Mali within a map of Africa and the Latin word for ‘Dad’.

10. Thomas was among nine players dropped from the France squad for the match against Italy in the 2018 Six Nations after they displayed “inappropriate behaviour” on a night out in Edinburgh following their defeat by Scotland.

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