Thought this coming off the ground last night....and though I felt we played well, I can't help but worry about our form without tomkins, especially given in a couple of years he'll be most likely gone.

Coming off the ground I couldn't remember our last win with sam out the team, and so thought I'd check it out! Having a look into it now, our form in games without Sam since 2009 when he broke through is startling!

Without sam - 2009 to date;

P 13
W 2
D 1
L 10

Our last win without sam was in March 2011 away at Huddersfield, and since we have lost all 5 games without him!

That's absolutely shocking for me, and what you'd expect of a bottom of the league team....Also thats only the competitive games....when you calculate the friendlies without sam the figure's even higher!

For me this is something we badly need to address, particulary in light of wane's comments about learning to cope without sam and preparing for his inevitable leaving....This would seem to point out a far to heavy reliance on one player IMO!

It's a team game and we do have a fantastic squad but Sam obviously gives us that extra spark, he is a special player and it shows how much we miss him when he doesn't play.

That is an absolutely jaw dropping statistic.

I am honestly shocked. And worried.

Well you know what they say about statistics. Would not surprise me at all if you could come up with a set of statistics that said we won more games on average when <insert name of player> was playing.

However I do think there is an issue re Sam.

And that is tactics. Specifically, we play the same way if he is in the side or not. Just doesn't work IMO when he is out.

Our play on Friday took me back to the days of Noble. So flat and unimaginative.

If Sam was to pick up a long term injury we would be lucky to get a top 6 position.

I dont think it is Tomkins the player we miss as such but the fact that we have absolutely no adequate replacement and as such it throws our entire game plan and structure into disarray. Our attacking game plan is so dependent on the full back chiming into the line and we have no other modern, attacking full back who can perform this role and our attack is just stopping dead. If we still had, for example, Roberts in his pre injury form then I think any disruption caused by the loss of Tomkins would be minimal. The salary cap doesnt really allow quality replacements when injuries occur and for me it dilutes the competition an awful lot (a totally different debate I know).

Ironically this is what i said late on in the game friday, although i was encouraged by the performance as a whole we were lacking ideas on the 2nd/3rd/4th and we just weren't gaining the yards.

and the op's statistic is worrying Mr Lenaghan

It's probably worth taking into account the opposition we've played in those games without Tomkins and also the strength of the team that we were able to put out.

I mean there weren't many complaints about our defeat to Huddersfield because we had such a depleted pack - the same goes for the Leeds game.

When we lost to Bradford last season we also had several players out.

The playoff semi against Leeds last season probably wouldn't have gone any differently with Tomkins in the team - Leeds win those games, we generally don't, particularly at home.

Put like that the statistics look poor but you really need to know more about those games and the team we had available to make any sort of judgement.

I do think we have a big issue of not being able to adequately replace Tomkins when he's injured though as neither Richards nor Charnley offer anything you'd expect from a modern fullback in that role.

It's because of our attacking structures, we ALWAYS play out the back door rugby, Sam is nearly our ONLY focal point in attack, he'll either burst through on his own or be the link to the centres-wingers.

When he's not there we lost it, because

a) we don't have many if any other attacking sets
b) we never do or possibly can replace him from that position.

With this lack of attacking options its strange we are still the top points scoring team in the league.

I also thought that our kicking game was atrocious at times. last tackle play and kicking it straight to Ryan Hall. Absolutely mind blowing.

In terms of the younger kids coming through I would have said the closest thing we had to him was Matty Russell but as he has upped sticks to Oz we are in trouble.

the couple of times i can remember us kicking to that side and Hall making a break off, i don't think was the intended play, it was forced that was from good rushing from Leeds and a poor pass on our part making us have to go to that side, what i would take issue with is Josh not getting on the inside of Hall thus letting him get a clean catch and get away easily

I hope he goes ASAP. We've had the best 2 seasons out of him