Yup, I don't want to overstate Tomkins' weaknesses just to make my case for Radlinski, but IMO the bigger the game, the more suited it becomes to Radlinski's skills over Tomkins'. There is less room to dance around defenders, and the consequences of dropping a high ball or missing a 1 on 1 tackle become greater. Hence Rads has the 2002 challenge cup final performance to point to, but there isn't an equivalent final where Tomkins bamboozled the defences.

There weren't many big games in which Sam didn't shine TBH. He is just a class act and when I say his defence isn't as good as Radlinskis it is probably 8/10 to 9/10.

with that then Hardaker should be FB instead of French

I can't agree re Radlinski....

Radlinski's point scoring stats are rather impressive, for someone so lacking in attacking attributes in your opinion.

He would have adapted his game easily as well, as he read the game brilliantly..... He was rather quick too...

I'm totally biased as i'm a massive fan, he is my favourite player. There may have been better players around, and many players there strong points, but just loved watching him be in the right place at the right time

Not really, Tomkins could play brilliantly in the halves. French can't (or hasn't shown that yet anyway). Radlinski was also a miles better attacker than Hardaker is today, but we're on a big tangent. I'm not saying I wouldn't pick Tomkins, obviously he's brilliant and you would want him in somewhere.

but hardaker is a better defender and under the high ball, the only things Rads had over sam

OK well I wouldn't pick Hardaker over French but fair enough if you would. I said I'd pick Radlinski and Tomkins, not Radlinski over Tomkins.

Tomkins all day long

In all honesty I would stick him at prop if I had to. He gets in my team one way or another.

I'd just be ready to say "i told you so" if he put in an attempted tackle like his one on French in 2019

Deffo Rads over Sam

I wouldnt for the same reasons I wouldnt have Rads over Sam at FB

Rads was one of my favourite players will always remember the tackle he did when Higham had only 10 mtrs to go to the line whilst playing for stains and like a missile Rads came from nowhere to not only flatten Mickey but dislodge the ball a absolute brilliant textbook hit.
I did mention this to him at one of those end of season things but he just looked at me ,he was worse for wear as was I lol.
I couldnt chose between Tompkins or Rads but you know you would have to find a spot for Tomkins somewhere on that team.

Same for me. Rads like Wellens at Saints were very good fullbacks and GREAT clubmen, but Sam had the x-factor. Some talk about his defence being poor but I remember him winning the game for us at Cas with three great tackles on Denny Solomona.

Correct
And I thought long and hard about extending my original post but didn't.
Because for every mistake Tomkins made, I could pick out one that Rads did and vice versa
And all we do then is criticise one or the other to deliegitimise the other, when the reality is at their time they were both the best this country had to offer.

Rads was very good, but just because Tomkins "Could" play somehwere else its a cop out to select him there. Rads probably played more games at centre for us than Tomkins did half back.

If you did pick Tomkins at FB you wouldn't have the response "But we have to get Rads in somehwere" because you don't.

But Tomkins has to be in

PS

On a 4hr flight recently me and another poster on here picked our best 17
As I went back a bit further (and deliberately to avoid the George Fairburn question) we went from 81/82

No1 - Sam Tomkins (Both massive fans of Rads) but Tomkins was Special

I'll reveal the full team later

The game has massively changed. Would Rads even move to fullback nowadays or would he come through in the centres and stay there? Gary Connolly is one of the best defensive fullbacks I have seen when he played there but I don't think you would dream of putting him there nowadays unless you really had to.

As I said on a previous post, I still think the job of my fullback is to be able to catch anything and tackle anything. If they can then be a major attacking threat even better but that's a bonus.

I think that's why it's hard to compare players from past eras. Forwards didn't get the breaks they get nowadays for example with the number of subs and probably took more high shots and late shots than they do now BUT someone like Kelvin Skerrett would probably be blowing out his backside with the pace of the game now.