Hes appalling this season. Its like a different player from when he left, he looks like he cant be bothered - i honestly dont think we'd miss him if he wasnt playing, hes that absent. Shame as he used to be an incredible attacking threat. I agree with the other posters, if hes not fit dont play him.

Top player before he went to Aus but for whatever reason it didn't happen for him. He then comes back and finds that his position of Wigan Wonderkid being taken by Bateman. Bateman then picks up disciplinary ban through circumstances outside rugby. As a genuine question would you have preferred Sam T get the ban instead?

He'll be completely different next season. quite obviously not fully fit. hence why he surrenders every tackle and wont take the line on. He'll be back no doubt.

I'm not convinced. I'd love to agree that "he'll be fine next season when he's fully fit", but somehow I don't expect it. His performances of late remind of his dog days with the Warriors in the NRL, handing off the ball as soon as possible.

My fear is he'll be just the same, and the excuse will be, he's *still* not fully fit.

He has definitely lost a lot of things from his game. His arm trapping at the play the ball isn't even as good as it was pre-NRL

IMO Sam is still a top quality player. To play his best game he needs the team to create space for him, they are not doing that this season which is why we are not seeing what he can do. It's a team game and the team has not performed for most of the season.

Is Tomkins Wigan's marque player? If so it shows how the concept can bite you in the backside.

The truth hurts. He's spot on.

Stat wise he is. At present he's a shadow of his former self.

My 2p as a non-Wigan follower is that you are never going to get the old Tomkins back. Those saying "we'll see when he's fully fit" are ignoring the fact that he hasn't really been "fully" fit for YEARS - since before he went to the NRL. And the edge of pace he's lost he's never going to get back.

But his defence has actually improved from being in the NRL and he's still a really smart player in terms of reading the game in traffic, has an excellent range of passing, decent kicking game, enough pace to finish off if not start a break etc. In fact he has exactly the right the skill set for a halfback. He might not be the superstar he looked like being a while ago, but he'd be an upgrade on Matty Smith, and even as a non-Wigan fan I wish you'd play Williams and Tomkins together at 6 and 7 for England's sake. I suppose having Leuluai and McIlorum back to guarddog them in the defensive line will help, but is there any reason why not?

He played better at half back yesterday than his performance at 1. Clearly because he can get his hands on the ball more & has a good passing game. His speed and acceleration seem to be non apparent at the moment and that's what his old game relied on.

Perhaps if we utilised him better and realised he's no longer physically equipped to play a modern day FB role then he'd do better.

To get on his back so much after 3/4 poor games is pretty standard of some Wigan fans though. Wouldn't expect anything else

Stats wise we are the worst team in the league.

Do we have the worst squad in the league?

I only listened to, and didn't watch last night's game (thank God, so it seems!), but it sounded like Sam was effectively playing in the halves most of the time anyway, and clearly didn't pull up any trees? I was thinking about the kicking game in particular.
BTW when was the last time we kicked a 40/20?

Long kicking game wasn't too bad I didn't think. And yes Tomkins was taking first receiver a lot of the time even when Williams was on the field basically playing 6.

However our attacking kicks are utter shoite. We had Charnley and Gelling one one side up against Marsh who is a centre that's barely 6ft and we didn't put one bomb up that way. Don't even get me started on repeat sets through attacking kicks. I think we managed one, we subsequently knocked on straight from the drop out.

I think he is done as one of the best players in Super League unfortunately. His game was reliant on acceleration and agility, the injuries have robbed him of both.

Its a shame, especially considering how much of the cap he is taking up at Wigan.

I just don't believe this idea that a pre season will give him back that extra pace or ability to break the line.

He will have to move into the halves but he doesn't have a great kicking game, and with his attacking side limited I not sure he will ever justify his contract or a position in Wigans team even.