I agree. I thought in this tournament although he had his momenents linking up with the attack - in an overworked move he seemed very lightweight in all other facets of his game. He may rise to the challenge in the NRL but I am not so sure he'll be able to. It may not go well for him and if not then I suspect he'll drop down to Union where he'll be a revelation because of lower defensive standards.

Tomkins has had a good tournament under the high ball and after seeing Locke completely bottle tackling Burgess for his try I don't think he'll have any problems getting in the team.

Funnily enough, at a coaching event at Headingley organised by the Leeds Rugby Foundation Ivan Cleary said that the defensive line is probably up quicker in SL than the NRL and so there is probably a bit more space in the NRL.

I think he did in the latter games where he got a bit more protection from the wingers coming inside. It was still a scary moment though taking an isolated high ball, will he won't he!
The quality of kicking in the NRL looks more accurate and clinical, something Tomkins will need to improve in his reading of the game, if he succeeds then its a win win situation for England.

SERIOUSLY!?!?!? Sam Tomkins did F all wrong yesterday apart from dropping a ball cold. linked up well created an over lap god knows how many times, passing was superb, didn't drop a high ball and there was one with locke and johnson on top of him, god knows how many 1 on 1 tackles and ragged dolled Isaac Luke to the ground who is regarded as pound for pound strongest in the NRL.

Can't believe there is still bitter fans, the haters tried to chirp up a few times through out this tournament but he has played well.

I don't hate him I want him to do well for the sake of England. But the fact remains world class players (as he is billed to be) perform and are the difference on the big stage. Think Meninga, Fittler, Lockyer, Lewis, Murphy, etc, etc. I've seen Sam play all his major tests against NZ and Australia in this country and he has never looked someone who makes the difference to me. Burgess certainly does.

Just put BBC2 on to watch the highlights. Seems history has repeated itself in another sport. NZ just equalised against Eire in RU in injury time. Won on the conversion (at secon attempt!). They are saying Eire deserved to win and it was an unbelievable game and Eire missed a kickable kick and gave away a penalty near the end. What are the chances of that happening again!?

It's Ireland, not Eire.

You're right, they include the northerns.

Just watched it myself. Gutted for them also. Ireland have never beaten the All Blacks, hard to believe they will get a better chance than that.

Still, at least my U11's won 20 - 0 this morning.

I've finally found the courage to watch it again might skip the last minute though.

Me too.i cant beleive how many 'if only' moments there are in the last 10 minutes!

Still,very proud of the efforts of the lads.cant fault any of them and they did us proud.gives us all hope for the future international wise.

Rather than focus on the last minute, where we really lost the game was the 10 mins in the 2nd half when we gave 5 pretty soft and in some cases questionable penalties.

Yes this is what I said yesterday. Seen some match stats today and the two teams are quite even, one telling stat was England had to make 36 more tackles than the Kiwis. In a match played in that style having to defend to what equates to 6 extra sets showed in the legs in those final few minutes. So much of that extra defensive work came in that opening period of the 2nd half.