The problem with the holding down is that it always goes against the defender. I don't think I've ever seen a penalty given against the attacking player for holding down and thereby not allowing the defender to leave the ruck. Is there a rule for that?

Shouldnt of put his hands there in the first place!!!! He was making a tackle, other than making sure his arm doesnt end up round the little cheats throat you cant expect him not to allow his armto get trapped when performing a tackle!!!

I've seen plenty of players in the past (and still continue to see it now) holding the defender down in order to win a penalty - and none have been subject to the witch hunt that is now starting to develop now.

Whether sam deliberatly doesn't let a defender take his arm away is not on the same scale as a player deliberately holding onto a players shirt and not letting him get up - at the end of the day -sam still has a responsibility to keep hold of the ball and I still haven't seen any definitive proof of Sam deliberately trapping a poor unsuspecting defenders arm which was previously uninvolved in the tackle.

I think the witch hunt is developing because Sam Tomkins is an extremely good player and fans of all the other clubs would like to see him curtailed because they don't have a Sam Tomkins in their side.

Of course I don't like it when he or anyone else does that kind of thing when they are playing against us, but I did rather like seeing Sinfield get a strop on after he'd been had by Mr T. It made me smile.

Why is everyone implying Tomkins is the only player who does this. Are you all so influenced by what a football supporter on sky decides to highlight. It is commonplace including a number of your players using it this season and a 'tactic' i have seen on many of the televised games involving all teams

It is something along with many other 'cheats' that should be taken out of our game. To ask a player not to cheat is virtually impossible. No one would ever be offside, or hold down for a start.

As for bringing the game into disrepute try starting with Mclennans post match coments about the 'cheat' Danny Maguire (get well soon)

There's nothing new in this. Hanley got away with it for years.

I'm sure i've seen penalties given for it in the past.

Thats easy. If he knows whats going on, he can when he sees it allow players additional time to untangle themself from Tomkin's arm.

He is cheating; he knows exactly what he is doing and if he does it against the convicts and gets away with it, I'll probably think well done. I don't for a minute think he will get away with in Oz / NZ. Their refs are not quite as forgiving as ours (unless of course you are called Mason and you want to punch another player).

Sam conned the ref twice. If we can all see it, the ref should be smart enough to spot it.
He can either just not give a penalty, meaning that Wigan get a slow play, or he can warn and the penalise Sam for holding the tackler.

We're getting on his back because he does it quite frequently, one or twice, it wouldn't be as noticed, but he's been doing it every time I've seen them on sky, and still he gets away with it, that's why people are "witch hunting" him.

At the end of the day it's down to the refs - pretty much everyone knows he does it now so the refs should just either let it go and just let Sam slow his own team down or penalise him (ungentlemanly conduct maybe?).. he'd soon stop doing it.

How can the ref allow additional time? The time that a tackler has to get away from the tackle is specified in the rules. If the ref allows more than that then he is not applying the rules of the game. which is his job out there.

You could argue that the rules should be changed, which is a reasonable standpoint (bearing in mind the consequential difficulties that could arise from that), but criticising Sam Tomkins for playing to the rules shows that you are probably arguing this point just because it is Sam Tomkins. I understand that (I dislike Leon Pryce for example, partly for how he plays, but mostly because he is so good ) but it is not the basis for a solid argument.

I've seen it from others though, Ablett from leeds, for example. Players are getting more proffesional, refs need to keep up.