Quote: bren2k "Or do we just accept that team sport works that way?
Prime example - would the illustrious Sam Tomkins be a RL superstar now, if he hadn't been forced to join the 1st team due to an injury to Thomas Leuluai?'"
It was an Injury to Tim Smith that gave ST his chance in the Wigan first team and to answer your question IMO yes he would, Sam only needed 80 minutes of first team rugby to prove how fantastic of a talent he was and only got better with a few games under his belt.
Chances will inevitably come for the `next in line` one way or another, it is how they take them that counts.