do you have any proof of this? i have proof your talking poopie, go to a very famous video site type in 'sam tomkins- limitless' 1.35 and onwards.

edited: and 3.48 mins


yeah he doesnt play amazing all the time against aus but either do the same english players in the nrl who look very good.

You do not know how he would go unless he goes.

I doubt many NRL Clubs would play him at Fullback, more likely he would be asked to play in the Halves and developed in that role.

Using that logic, better than most teams in SL...

re-watch the first game against aus in the last 4nations and then tell me he didnt have a good game, but he did have an average game in the next one against aus but so did all of the england team.

He has both the skill and attitude to make it a success. How successful I don't know but he could start on a weekly basis in the NRL I'm sure of that.

Send him to the NRL or Union. He's nothing but an odious little pr**k.

Informative as usual

well, it is your specialist subject.

This is rugby league...and whilst I've not seen many talents like Tomkins there's always a good way to reduce the threat of a small, fast, illusive player; smash him hard (but legal) early on a couple of times and suddenly the frequency of threat diminishes.

Trouble is actually getting those hits admittedly, but one problem at a time!

To be fair, every side that has done that, has generally been torn apart throughout the remaining 70 minutes.

When opposing teams have the ball it is crucial that their last tackle plays are spot on in order to limit the destructive nature of Tomkins' running in broken play: either utilise the high bomb or get the ball into touch.

However defending against him is something that will take some doing; maybe study how Aus defended against him in the 4N Final...? Until defensive structures improve across the whole of SL Sam Tomkins will continue to do what he does, however, I do think that defences are too cautious against the robotic Wigan attack.

We are going to get to the stage where a coach just picks out one defender and tells him to follow Tomkins around the pitch as a man-marker!

The problem is that he can beat (probably) every single player in SL 1v1. When you incorporate dummy runners and throw in a couple of his tricks/steps, most of the time he is impossible to defend against because even if he doesn't beat you himself, he'll slip a pass away and another player will beat you.

He's a real talent, and I've no doubt he'd be a star in the NRL given time. But he certainly wouldn't be facing defences that fall apart simply because he has the ball, and he would get tackled heavily far more often in the NRL if he continued to try running across the defence on every play. The interesting question is what position he'd play in the NRL - I think he'd struggle defensively at fullback TBH, and would more likely end up in the halves.

If you watch the tries scored by Wigan against Leeds its really hard to judge how good Tomkins or Wigan as a whole were - Leeds were simply awful in defence.