On Monday Thomas joined the Welsh training squad for the first time as captain and revealed he owes a lot to British Lion Charvis for assisting his development.

The full-back, now playing with Toulouse in the French championship, was unveiled as the successor to Charvis last week after national coach Mike Ruddock had carried out his interviewing process.

Charvis will now be Thomas vice-captain and Wales record try-scorer believes he has the ideal man at his side.

To be honest I learned a lot from Colin, said Thomas, who becomes Wales 119th captain.

He was a great leader and had great respect of the players and that to me is a major aspect of being a captain.

To have Colin in the squad will be a great help and will also ease the pressure a little bit.

After the announcement, I rang Colin when I was in France and to be honest it wasnt much of a of a conversation.

I just phoned him to say look I know you are behind me 100%, I was behind you 100% and basically we then just had a chat about life off the field.

I am glad we just broke the ice and had a chat.

Thomas added: Working together with Colin there will be two different styles, but hopefully those different styles will bring something special to the team.

As far I am concerned I dont have a particular style to my captaincy. I will do it the way I think it should be done and the way I believe it will be beneficial for the team.

Colin is obviously going to play a big role in that.