The Cardiff star with his sights set on incredible club landmark
GARETH Thompson reached one major landmark in Blue & Black in the first-half of the season and now the Cardiff outside half is preparing to chase down another as he tries to keep his side on course for a first Premiership title since 2009.
The 25-year-old schoolteacher notched his 100th appearance for his home town team at Sardis Road last weekend and next on his hit list is the 1,000 points mark for the club. His 10 points in the 26-25 defeat against archrivals Pontypridd last weekend took his points tally to 914.
That has left him 86 points short of becoming only the sixth player in the club’s history to reach four figures. With the third highest points-pergame average (9.16) he could need as few as 10 more games to reach his next big landmark.
“The exciting thing about Gareth is that he is still learning and still improving. His game has really developed over the last few years and he played a big part in our cup success last season,” said Cardiff head coach, Steve Law.
“He now has a wealth of experience and his goalkicking has been superb for us. I think the change in personnel at the club in the last few seasons has challenged him and he is no longer operating in a comfort zone.
“There is plenty of competition for places at Cardiff and he has reacted really positively to that. He is well respected within the playing group and he still has a long way to go in his rugby journey.”
His statistics compare very favourably with some of the all-time greats at the club and this season alone he has surpassed the great Bill Tamplin (891) in the points scoring list. Next in his sights will be current Merthyr outside half, Gareth Davies (972) before he moves on towards the 1,000 barrier. Thompson can now claim to have scored more tries than Barry John (26 to 24), kicked more conversions than Adrian Davies (227 to 211) and is on course to climb even higher up the points rankings as he writes his name very firmly into the club’s near 150 year history.