Thompson learning from Hayman
January 20 2010
Switching from hooker to tighthead after ten years of rugby is no mean feat, but Newcastle's Matt Thompson is relishing his new front-row job.
Whilst all but one of his 188 appearances have come in the number two jersey, Thompson is relishing the chance to pick up some new tricks following last Friday's successful propping debut.
Playing the opening half of the Falcons' 16-14 win at Albi in his new position, the 27-year-old ended the game fairly happy with how things went.
"I thought bits of it went quite well, but I'm still in a learning phase and there were always going to be things that need working on," he said.
"The Albi guys obviously knew it was my first time out, they targeted me but I was happy with how I dealt with certain aspects of it.
"I was saying to the boys before kick-off that I'm not bothered about the rest of the game, I just want the first scrum to go well. Thankfully it did, and that calmed my nerves quite a bit because we won a penalty with the first scrum and a free kick from the second."
Filling the considerable boots of All Black icon Carl Hayman, for 40 minutes at least, Thompson revealed that the seeds of his switch had been sewn many months ago despite waiting until last week for his first senior start at prop.
"Alan Tait actually thought of the idea towards the end of last season, but it was probably about three months ago that it was talked about as something we were seriously looking to do," said the local lad.
"With the size and weight that I am they had thought I could do a job at tighthead, and I've enjoyed it so far. Initially it was just a case of doing a couple of scrums at tight head when we were doing our normal scrummage sessions, and as the weeks have gone on it's gradually increased from there."
Revealing his assimilation to the new role, he said: "The play around the park is no different, it's just the scrummaging and then obviously at the line out I'm lifting rather than throwing.
"It's a lot less pressure at line out time because people generally blame the hooker when a team doesn't win the ball, and for a first senior start last weekend I was reasonably satisfied.
"I've been getting a lot of help from Carl Hayman, and he has really been great in terms of how he's worked with me and taken time to help me out.
"Quite often it's just a case of watching what Carl does rather than analysing things too much, because he's such a good player.
"Equally we have the likes of Micky Ward here who is very experienced at tighthead, and the England Saxons scrum coach Simon Hardy was up this week working with me."