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Wales centre Ben Thomas escaped a red card after he was sin-binned for kicking out at an Argentina player during the first half of the opening autumn fixture. The Cardiff centre was shown a yellow card after he aimed a kick back at Los Pumas back-row Pablo Matera as the Argentina star held his leg on the floor. Referee Ben O'Keefe sent the decision to the bunker - meaning it could have seen Thomas shown a 20-minute red card. Thankfully for Thomas, the bunker confirmed later in the first half that the decision would remain a yellow card - allowing Thomas to return to the match. Initially, the Television Match Official (TMO) thought Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams was the guilty party - with O'Keefe under the impression it was the Gloucester player. However, replays showed it was instead Thomas - with O'Keefe settling for a yellow card after seeing no clear evidence of contact to Matera's head. "You turn, look at the player and you use the foot," said O'Keefe to Thomas as he was sent from the field. Instead, the action alone saw him sent to the sin-bin for a bunker review - meaning it could have been upgraded to a 20-minute red card. However, minutes before half-time, O'Keefe told both sets of players that it would remain a yellow card. "They've established they don't actually believe Thomas made contact but this has been done on the intent," said TNT Sports commentator Alastair Eykyn. "It doesn't matter, it's like throwing a punch and missing. The intent was there," Sam Warburton said. "Ben Thomas has to show more composure there. You make contact with the head and that's a straight red. "It's outright foul play, you just cannot at any level do that in this sport, Ben Thomas is a lovely player but he just lost his composure in that moment. "Had he made contact with his face or made clean contact, that would have been a really nasty outcome." The incident came just after Wales had worked their way back into Steve Tandy's first match in charge, having gone from 14-0 down to 14-14 thanks to tries from Williams and Dewi Lake. At half-time, Dan Biggar said of the incident: "I actually thought they (Wales) showed a lot of bottle. We spoke beforehand about starting well and not letting Argentina get a head of steam, Carreras penalty around the 40-metre mark there, if that goes into the corner there, who knows? "But they showed some real bottle. They then squandered that with a moment of stupidity from Ben Thomas, isn't it?" "It had a touch of (David) Beckham about it against Argentina, oh my word, no coincidence!" said TNT Sports host Craig Doyle. "The big point is, where he was so lucky that it stayed at a yellow is that he hasn't made contact, but it was more luck than judgment," Biggar continued. "He's missed through luck, rather than judgement. He's kicked out, lashed out from frustration, we've all been there when someone is grabbing hold of you but after getting back to 14-14, then all of a sudden the life has been sucked out by that and a couple of sucker punches towards the end of the half." Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here and our WhatsApp channel here for all the breaking news. You can also follow us on social media on our X account , Facebook , Instagram and TikTok. For more exclusive stories and in-depth analysis, you can sign up for the Inside Welsh Rugby substack newsletter here.
