Oh, it's got thorns, all right, stiff and sharp and reasonably abundant. I'm eyeing my patch of it and thinking I really need to cut aged growth out it. It's not a task I'm particularly looking forward to.

It has substantial thorns and plenty of them.

Just as an aside, I did get to work on cleaning out GMB. A couple of hours when I find time, day after day; armful after armful of dead, twiggy, aged wood carried off to be chopped up and spread as mulch to feed the young fruit trees and next year's daffodils. There's still plenty of rose left, tall, strong, young and younger canes, and I hope next spring's flowering will be much the better for my labor. Everything else is getting tidied up at the same time, so the area looks much nicer than before.