Johnny Thomas (rugby) Johnny Thomas (rugby) John Thomas ( – 25 September 1954), also known by the nicknames of "Johnny", and "Johny", was a Welsh rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s. He played representative level rugby union (RU) for Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, and at club level for Maesteg RFC and Cardiff RFC, as a full-back or scrum-half, i.e. number 15, or 9, and representative level rugby league (RL) for Great Britain, Wales, Glamorgan and Lancashire, and at club level for Wigan, as a or , i.e. number 6 (number 10 in a 15-player team),
Rugby union positions the opposition scrum-half or defend the blindside. On defence in open play they generally cover for deep kicks after the ball has been passed wide. Traditionally, scrum-halves have been the smallest players on the team, but many modern scrum-halves are a similar size to the other players in the team. Five scrum-halves are members of the International Rugby Hall of Fame; four of them are also in the IRB Hall of Fame. Ken Catchpole of Australia was made captain on his debut at 21 in 1961, and went on to captain the Wallabies in nearly half of his 27 Tests.