He is playing for another club though, you clearly have a sharp attention to detail.

"Poor fullback" LOL

Interesting debate about Tomkins on Aussie TV https://youtu.be/xWTwW4JQagA

Interesting debate about Tomkins on Aussie TV https://youtu.be/xWTwW4JQagA

Pretending to be living in New Zealand and a Warriors fan is really sad, when in reality you're probably sat in your mams council house in Thatto Heath.

Not good enough for an NRL fullback is he not? Hmmm ok let's look at some facts then...

• 13 tries in 2014 placing him joint 3rd out of all NRL fullbacks, level with the great Greg Inglis.

• 108 tackle breaks ranking him 4th.

• 13 try-assists ranking him 6th out of all fullbacks.

• 14 line breaks ranking him 6th again.

• 19 line break-assists ranking him 4th.

So, judging by those few stats, if Tomkins isn't an NRL standard fullback then there's only about 5 that are.

I think you will find Mr Pooley actually lives in New Zealand.
You may need more than 8 posts to your name before you make statements like you have.

The link I posted had the commentators say he pulled the pin one year into his deal, this year his final year at the NZ Warriors he has made two or three appearances.

He was not worth anywhere near what the NZ Warriors outlayed for him or a good return on investment.
He was supposed to be a game changing superstar on what his contract was worth.
Instead he was a pretty good attacking player that was weak in defense and under the high ball.

He leaked 36 missed tackles at a rate of 1.5 per game

Tomkins will have to be wary of his error rate too. His 31 errors last season saw him scrape in to the top 10 across the competition for all the wrong reasons.

Not read the rest of the thread, but had this debate before. Tomkins is a top tier cap earner. Some of the guys who are being compared to him are rookies or solid pro's but not top earners. With big bucks and big reputation comes great expectation.

Based on that Tomkins has fallen well short.

I live in korokoro, just north of wellington. If you think my opinion of him is wrong then fine, but not many if any warriors fans are sad he's leaving.....average at best and as u said earlier, ge couldn't handle not being the Sta in the team.....

When we beat Aus/NZ in a test or two & people are saying it woz Sam wot won it, then I will believe the hype. He would grace any team in SL, but so would a number of players, it doesn't make them the best player of their generation.

That's quite a journey for you top watch some Rugby League Jim. My sister lives in Hamilton and when the Warriors signed Sam I was in touch trying to get some sense of whether it was big news. Her husband is a big Union fan and they'd never heard of him!

I'm interested in your comments because of course, it is more than possible that I am blind to Sam's deficiencies. Since I watched him on debut score five tries I have seen him in practically every Wigan game he's played. He is an outstanding attacking talent who was originally a scrum half. He played there for the first couple of years until Michael Maguire pushed him to full back. Now, I always felt that full back exposed him somewhat, but it gave him the space to rip teams apart which he often did. He has a ridiculous record of tries and assists from full back.

I have watched most of the NZW games on Premier Sports, because I still thought of him as ours. I must admit, I didn't think that his frailties were exposed so much. I actually thought that he did quite well under the high ball and I don't think he has done too badly in defence. Your commentator Andrew Voss on Sky is always very supportive of Sam. He seems objective in his comments.

Where his problem lieis can be summed up in two words. Shaun Johnson. Now, I'm not attaching any blame to SJ, far from it. But - there is only room for one superstar in most teams, and Sam isn't it. I've lost count of the number times when it goes to the final play and Sam has been used as a dummy runner or a decoy for SJ to do his thing. And on the other side only when Thomas Leuluai has been playing has Sam got anything like a decent pass.

NZW haven't got the best out of Sam. That said, clearly the standard is much higher than Super League. Overall, I think he's done well, though in his heart of hearts I think Sam will be disappointed. I think a return to the halves will be on the cards in a year or so. He has a great competitive spirit and great ball handling skills and is a leader. I'm more than glad he's coming home. Couldn't be happier.

Good luck to the Warriors for the rest of the season. Would love to see Sam with a GF ring!

PS any chance we could have Thomas back as well?!!

Oh no! Hitting me where it hurts, my post count

I agree that he hasn't been a good investment for the Warriors, but that's purely because of him coming home early and his injuries this year, not because he isn't good enough.

You've highlighted his errors and missed tackles, let's compare him to some of the top fullbacks over there:

Billy Slater - Missed tackles(2icon_cool.gif Errors(33)
Greg Inglis - Missed tackles(11) Errors(12)
Jarryd Hayne - Missed Tackles(26) Errors(2icon_cool.gif
Matt Moylan - Missed Tackles(26) Errors(32)
Anthony Minichiello - Missed tackles(31) Errors(37)
Michael Morgan - Missed tackles(1icon_cool.gif Errors(30)
Brett Stewart - Missed tackles(20) Errors(23)

It's easy to pick out Tomkins' error count individually to
make him look a bad player, but compare him to other top fullbacks in the NRL and he doesn't look out of place at all. Not bad considering it was his first year there when all of the above players (bar Matt Moylan) are experienced NRL fullbacks.

indeed.....about $10,000 a year in flights etc. Sooner we get NZII the better......
i agree about SJ limiting sams chances to shine, but i think his defensive failings have been further highlighted in his time here.

Rookies and solid pro's? Based on that I don't believe you've watch an NRL game in your life. His stats from last season, his first in a much tougher league, compare very well against some of the best fullbacks the game has seen.

Yeah sorry I shouldn't have had a go, I was just skeptical based on your skewed opinion of his ability, maybe a bit of bitterness that he's leaving early? I don't know but I certainly can't respect your assertion that he's "average".

He has been the epitome of average in the NRL. An out of form low on confidence Ben Barba running through him like he was Mal Maninga is hard to look past.