How the hell is Sam only 19?!! he looks like a veteran already and is running the side.

A bad game will be just around the corner and thats when we'll see what he's made of but i'd back him to hit right back.

Superb.

It is so frustrating to be stuck in Milwaukee reading these posts. I have been looking forwards to watching him play and have yet to see it.

OK I guess Bradford were not brilliant but you can only play the team in front of you and this can't have done his confidence any harm.

I hope he is still in the team by the time I get back!

Dave

So may Hodges, Tate, Lyon and Cooper

everybody in RL has been crying out for the young wigan players to get the gig and now they are its looking good for them.

In saying that though Bradford where shocking last night.

A great talent, with all the right skills, a good rugby brain and heaps of passion for the Cherry & White. He has great balance, a jinking/side-step style of running and is very vocal on the pitch..........all fantastic attributes for someone who is only 19 years of age.

This lad can only get better and better as he grows in confidence as a regular first teamer - I suppose that the challenge will come when teams double-mark him and try to close him down as with Trent.................but if the team plays as it did last night and steps up to the plate as a unit, this will create other opportunities and gaps on those occasions.

As Trent Barrett correctly stated after going back to Australia - Wigan already had his successor in Sam.

It's great to see that there is a core of young Wigan lads becoming established first team players. As Ged Byrne stated in the South Stand Bar before the match, there is no greater pride in pulling on your home team's shirt for the first time - these lad's are now proving that they have got the hunger and pride to do this constantly.

Long may it continue

As I was saying to a few of my Wigan mates last night, you can see natural talent straight away. Sam Tompkins has got it and he's going to be a very good player, I think. In fact, he's already pretty good.

We've got a great new batch of quality young players coming through in SL. Burgess, Westerman, Owen, Shenton, Eastmond, Wheeler, Clough, Graham, Roby, Myler, Tompkins, Ainscough, Watkins, Moore. The list goes on.

The young talent getting a chance at the minute in the game looks very exciting and finally gives us abit of optimisim for the future.

The likes of Shenton, Myler, Westerman, J Tomkins and Scott Moore have got a real chance of playing for England at the end of this season aslong as they keep their form.

I hope he keeps this up and wigan can keep hold of him, the RFL should make a stance with him like they did with Cunningham, pay part of his salary to keep him in RL. Our game needs young stars like him.
I know i'm a saints fan but i really think a strong Wigan/Saints/Leeds and Hull is important if not essential to rugby league in this country.

Hate to say I told you so.

The majority of people were backing Tim Smith to start against Bradford rlhttps://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?t

I dont understand the logic of wanting to change the team after last nights performance???

For the first time in years we looked to be playing as a TEAM, and a damn good one at that. Forget that Bradford were poor, look at the fact that no-one in the whole 17 had a bad performance and all of them were looking for work/showing team spirit.

We even had dummy runner/second phase/support play. I for one would love to see us try that same 17 against Leeds, for 2 reasons, one because they are the best in the league and a good test, and 2 because we can then see if last nights performance was a one off or whether Noble has finally found the winning (or atleast a quality) combination.
If we go changing the team round there will always be that "what if" feeling of whether lastnights performance was a one off.

I would care if we got 50 points put past us against Leeds as long as when we had the ball we throw it around and show some exciting plays again.

Agreed. Rugby League doesn't do enough to protect itself. If it keeps taking the 'everything will look after itself' stance it seems to favour at the moment, the one thing we can guarentee is that everything won't look after itself for too much longer!

x3