Sam Tomkins wants top rugby league players to join forces with their rugby union counterparts and play sevens for Team GB at the 2016 Olympics. Sam, the Wigan Warriors Super League superstar, has made no secret of the fact the chance to win Olympic Gold in the near future is on his high up on list of his career goals. Tomkins, the newly-crowned Man of Steel would be a sensation in sevens and believes a combined team made up of the best from league and union is worth considering. menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... ited-front Looks like Sam may end up in Union once his contract expires.

Sam Tomkins wants top rugby league players to join forces with their rugby union counterparts and play sevens for Team GB at the 2016 Olympics. Sam, the Wigan Warriors Super League superstar, has made no secret of the fact the chance to win Olympic Gold in the near future is on his high up on list of his career goals. Tomkins, the newly-crowned Man of Steel would be a sensation in sevens and believes a combined team made up of the best from league and union is worth considering. menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... ited-front Looks like Sam may end up in Union once his contract expires.

Oh well.

Shame he cant just concentrate on mastering the sport he's playing instead of getting as much attention as possible by flirting with other sports. Not nearly the complete RL player but seems obsessed with talking about other things.

He will need to learn to catch the high ball and perform infront of big crowds in big games if he wants to play union. Something he hasn't mastered yet.

I support him.

If "Rugby" 7's to be an Olympic sport, then ALL rugby players ought to be eligible for selection. RL stars who are interested should make it known they are available & those who are entrusted with picking the Team GB squad ought, for the avoidance of doubt, come out and confirm they are considering ALL top players - whether they play League or Union.

Main point - we shouldn't allow this to be seen as just an RU thing.

Nonsense it is Rugby Union 7's. If RL wants a gig at the Olympics then get serious about International development and instigate a RL 9's schedule around the world., Until then we shouldn;t expect to hang off the coat tails of the work Union has done with it 7's programmes.

Down Under countries can pick who they like - I'm on about the GB team

And why should RU pick a RL player to play? Maybe you think we should allow some sprinters, footballers or RU players to play for England RL? They are different sports, we have not right to expect our players to be picked to play Int level for another code.

We have no right, true, the question is though, do we want to win?

I remember the Bulls doing some work in Union 7s at Twickers, when they utterly humiliated all-comers. I find it outrageous to suggest that if RL got involved, there would be even a single RU player worthy of a place in the Olympic team. The RL lads may not know how to play RU very well, but as the Bulls showed, it doesn't actually matter.

Still one of the most enjoyable days out I can remember, that was

Here's the Olympic RU 7s team off the top of my head - unless you can think of a better one?

Sam Tomkins
Ryan Hall
Rob Burrow
Josh Charnley
Ben Westwood
James Roby
Jamie Langley

Subs
Jones-Bishop
Sinfield
Ablett
Wilkin
Bateman
Lomax
Yeaman
T.Briscoe
Crabtree
Whitehead
Bateman

And that's just straight off the top of my head, without even thinking about it. We could pick a squad to annihilate the Union lads, whoever they put out.

Odd that since the Bulls' rout, they've never invited us back!

Only 'cos you couldn't afford the train fare.

Agree. (Especially after watching Wigan ease up on Bath at Man City's ground that time - so they didn't exceed 100 points!)

But I am trying to be realistic on the basis that RL players shouldn't be excluded from the recognition etc.

The people who pick the Barbarians RU team set a recent precedent by picking Sam Tomkins for their team.

I just think we should aim to build on it. The best outcome realistically is that we get RL players comprising up to half the Team GB squad for the next Olympics.

There are plenty of strong 7s teams in World Rugby.
A combined League and Union team would not find the All Blacks or even Fiji, Aus or SA an easy proposition.
The All Blacks backs are as good as any Athletes in either code.

Pretty much missing the point that Sevens is almost a seperate sport with its own identity (HSBC World Sevens Series), bearing little relationship to the 15 or 13 a side games, with very few "top grade" cross-over players.

Hence, I'd say he's either a bit bored now the season is finished, or very ill informed thinking that Sevens is just something that you can pick up to play off-season.

Personally don't want to see it. It is rugby union 7's and all it would do is make league look like 2nd rate with our top player all declaring themselves available. You wanna play union 7's, no problem. Just sign for a union team and leave the sport of rugby league. Wouldn't it be better if sam and other people in rugby league tried to talk up the 9's game and get that moving somewhere. Also read this.. wouldn't this be the same in england? www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/nrl-s ... 6494199289

Personally don't want to see it. It is rugby union 7's and all it would do is make league look like 2nd rate with our top player all declaring themselves available. You wanna play union 7's, no problem. Just sign for a union team and leave the sport of rugby league. Wouldn't it be better if sam and other people in rugby league tried to talk up the 9's game and get that moving somewhere. Also read this.. wouldn't this be the same in england? www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/nrl-s ... 6494199289