Raging Wales star banged down referee's door as 'all hell broke loose' amid humiliation

Warm, sunny and relaxed is how the author Bill Bryson has described Rome. Rewind to 2007 and the warm and sunny bits of his description were there.

But relaxed? Wales’ rugby captain Gareth Thomas was anything but as his team endured an afternoon which could not have been more stressful had all concerned been challenged to cross an impossibly busy Roman road during rush hour, amid a multitude of horn-tooting, lane-jumping drivers, some of them not entirely abiding by the Italian equivalent of the Highway Code.

By tea-time, Thomas was in a state of apoplexy, Wales had suffered only their second-ever defeat to Italy and head coach Gareth Jenkins was one step closer to losing his job. Oh, and the events of the afternoon ensured referee Chris White could forget about being named that year’s Mr Popularity this side of the River Severn. Thinking about it, at one point that day, while he declined to answer his dressing room door while Thomas hammered on it from outside, White's ambitions probably extended no further than finding a way out of the said changing area in one piece. For him, a fast car parked outside the back would have been ideal. Facing a raging Thomas less so.

All because of a mix-up over time. But what a mix-up, one which cost Wales at least a share of the spoils in a match they were to lose 23-20. Few Six Nations games have ended amid such mayhem, with Italy's cup of joy overflowing and Wales' cup — well, Wales' cup overflowed as well, albeit with anger.

Rewind 15 years, then, to the Gareth Jenkins era as Wales'national coach. It hadn’t been going well when the fixture with Italy came around. Jenkins’ team had won just two games since he took over at the helm, but there was quality in it in the shape of Shane