So much so that he was called up to represent his country against Australia, no less.

No doubt he got so bored of standing around watching his overweight comrades laying all over the ball or kicking it into touch every 2 minutes that he lost interest?

Welcome back Joel!

he was thrust into the England team on the back of being a big money convert and was proved to be way out of his depth at that level.however, he is not the first and wont be the last to go through that experience.

I suppose he made a better fist of it than others have and he comes back to SL with a few good years left ahead of him (providing hes the same player that left) and a few more quid in his pocket so I doubt he has regrets.

go to the saracens forum and look at posts before his call up to England and before his Injury they was loving his performances and offloads. To say he failed is just utter turd, Im sure some would say Ashton was a flop in union if he was ever to return.

I said he made a fist of it,which he clearly did at club level.on the international stage however, he fell woefully short.go read the reports and summarisations.

TBH I couldnt give a tosh whether he made it or not for the rah rah international side and am glad to see him back just hope he is the same player.

Not cutting it at international level doesn't mean he flopped in union (not implied at you), and look at the other factor that his inside centre was billy twelvetrees, i don't think SBW would look good playing outside of him.

Under no circumstances can people say he flopped he worked his way into the 1st team at Saracens and the England set up, he played the 1st year in reserves.

Im just hoping he still has those rugby league instincts like line speed, not tackling flatfooted, running angles and hitting holes.

Absolutely gutted that Wigan have signed an injured Union flop and Leeds only have Kallum Watkins and Joel Moon.

Hell, even our 3rd choice centres are better than that turnstyle.

You're right, I've never actually managed to watch more than 10 minutes of a union game and even then it's just to laugh at the "skills" on offer.

The picture below has a big clue, if it allows me to post it. are you old enough to remember the try he scored against in you in the challenge cup final, you know one of the greatest try's scored at Wembley? who was the centre that day?

And that is fine, you are able to have an opinion.

But don't speak as if you have the slightest clue about anything to do with Union, because to be perfectly honest you are making yourself look like a fool!

Ps who cares about Kallum Watkins and Joel Moon, we have O'Loughlin and he is miles better.
That is pretty much the extent of your argument.

Tomkins did alright in union from the games/highlights I watched of him, problem was you could see he was frustrated at times and stuff that seemed logical (from a general sport/rugby POV) didn't happen so he sort of looked 'out of position' or lost at times..that was the problem of the sport rather than him.

The other thing is that a lot of times his ball handling skills were just never going to be called upon, did some nice passes mind but for me he should have gone to open side flanker so he could work his off and be involved more.
He'll do alright coming back to RL but tbh I think those three years are going to effect him more than many think/can undertsand

Personally I think its great he's back in RL.

Isn't part of the problem that he was effectively a part-time centre in RL (albeit a pretty good one), who was always eventually going to move permanently into the forwards?

RU signed him as primarily a centre. From what I recall he had big pluses as a centre - big and quick - but didn't look a natural centre in RL either for the most part, despite the spectacular Wembley try (aided by some poor Leeds defence it should be noted).

I sincerely hope that Sam Burgess is a bigger flop, as it seems he's apparently been signed as a centre as well, with far less background than Tomkins (I don't think he's ever played in the centres - certainly not for Souths). The prevailing view seems to be that he'll never master the complexities as an RU forward.

He was always a 2nd row and he was Wigans best second row, who used to burst threw tackles all the time and ran better lines than Liam Farrell. Then Martin Gleeson decided he would have a meltdown and Madge fired him off so Joel had to cover as a Centre and did well but it wasn't his position.

Sam Burgess won't be a flop but what will happen is he will get bored and when he returns early he will get called a flop by people who watch barely any union and the Anti league brigade in union. It will take a naturally talented athlete like Burgess a year to learn union forwards skills but it won't matter anyway because if he puts in 28 tackles a game they will believe he is some kind of demi god. The biggest thing he needs to learn is how to read the game and how to clean out rucks and line out plays, because joining a ruck, mauling and scrumming is actually very simple for a open side flanker.

Welcome back joel, but i'd have to agree with the Grub comments, as he's a grub.

He's got the michael ennis seal of quality.

www.wiganwarriors.com/WBlogp.aspx?id=22 Operation Red Squirrel.

www.wiganwarriors.com/WBlogp.aspx?id=22 Operation Red Squirrel.