Exactly the point I explained to my lad at the game. Wellens would have caught the ball and then got smashed, but still held the ball. That's what an international RL player should do, for him, his team mates and his country. Get that ball/player no matter what the cost.

The guy's a joke, when Warrington beat Wigan back end of the season he said absoloutly nothing all game. Similarly, he jumps out of his seat with some of the cheap shots coming in from NZ last week and then keeps silent when Hock gouges and then punches Harrison.

Carney is an infinitely better pundit.

every bomb comes down at an angle. The trick is to be positiopned so that you can judge the flight and get to it.

They were good kicks, with a good chase. Tomkins is not great under a high kick with that pressure. He looks better in SL because very few players kick as well as Lockyer or Thurston and he he has loads of time as very few chase as well as Austraklia.

It is a weakness in his game that needs to be improved.

Not excusing Tomkins but it didn't help that there were 3 or 4 Australians bearing down on him but not one English player, where was the protection and support any fullback should expect from his team mates.

That attempt looked awfull from my couch, every player even the great Billy Slater have brain explosions, the other high kicks he had to deal with on the night were very well placed to make every one a risky option & that was down to Englands players not been able to put the kicker under pressure or get into position to protect him from the on rushing Green jumpers. The whole team looked jaded I think last weeks game took a lot out of them?

From where I was sat in the of the North Stand (opposite end from where he took the kick), he never looked like getting to it.
Yes, some protection would have helped, and yes, he had some very difficult kicks to handle, but I'm convinced Wellens and many others would have at least got to them, if not actually taken them.
What surprises me is that extreme bravery in defence has been of Tomkins most admirable qualities. Last night though, every time they sent one up, a little voice in my head seemed say "Oh sh**, he's gonna bottle it"

Sadly you are making exuses for him.
Taking the 'real' high ball is obviously a fault in his game,3 or 4 in this tourament alone points this out.
Also watchind the aussies bearing down on him rather than watching the ball,tut tut.

Noted on twitter

Not what he said, retweet from Wellens Twitter -

I wouldn't have fancier taking that one. Would you?” filthy kick. That would have moved heaps.

Phill Clarke's outburst was embarasing as was Hemings & Stephensons comentary why oh why can't SKY get shut of them. God knows what the viewers in Australia must have thought?

I was at the game so I didn't have to listen at the time - just watched it back on Sky+ though and I can only agree.

Clarke's attempts to sound intellectual and insightful are plain embarassing, as is his unashamed Wigan bias; Eddie comes across as a jolly moron who knows absolutely nothing about the game beyond who the players are and Stevo, sad to say, can't even finish a coherent sentence any more - I don't think he's got all his faculties.

Carney struggles vainly to keep things sensible, but his voice is lost in the background thanks to the constant stream of e spewed by the other three.

Every ball is catchable when kicked in the air.He just made a mistake and did not get his body shaped correctly into the catch.He is a human being like all of us, and is not superman.

For me Tomkins has not backed up the hype surrounding him.
Poor under the high ball and, for me, has not tried to inject himself into the attacking line enough against Australia and New Zealand, particularly when the game has been close.
The best players pull of big plays at vital moments. Tomkins has blown it at vital moments.
However, he's still got a lot of developing to do and could become world class, he just isn't yet.

It was a cringe worthy comment. Yes it was a difficult kick, but world class full-back should catch them. He looks very supect under the high ball. Hopefully he will work on it.

the main thing that disappointed me was that i didn't see him explode into the line once. Although Chase & Sinfield have to take some blame for this.

sam was targeted and then lost confidence. he behaved as he did toward the end of the super league season when he wasnt 100% the uncatchable ball comment was silly, unnecessary and i doubt sam himself would have spouted such had he been asked about it

Most people seem to be wanting to apportion blame at the moment, as is customary on this site. But really, time for perspective!

Tomkins was disappointing, especially after the previous two games in which he always looked a threat, and IMO, world class. He seems to have a problem with high balls against dominant opposition, and perhaps a different player would have done better. But there is no-one else for England who can do what Tomkins can on attack. He's young, hasn't played FB for long, and will iron out these problems in his game. After this series I'm more convinced than ever that he should have won Man of Steel this season, despite my original preference being Roby - still some motivation left for him for next season.

The reason he had a quiet game was simple - the forward battle was lost, and compounded by England making a string of basic errors, starting with the stupid ball-steal attempt from Sinfield. This meant Tomkins had no space when he got the ball, and was only going to get clattered. Sinfield wasn't great but he was playing under the same pressures too - people criticising Sinfield for not passing enough to Tomkins are deluded - it wouldn't have made a difference. The half backs were always going to struggle in these circumstances.

It seems to me that the current England team has the best back line we've seen for some time, but the forwards aren't quite as good as they have been in recent years. Perhaps it was just one game too far for the old warhorses Morley and Peacock. We needed a bit more dynamism, which Burgess would have usually provided. I thought Ellis was disappointing for someone who is allegedly good enough for State of Origin. JJB and Wilkin did OK but are probably a bit too small.

No point reading too much into individual performances I suppose. Whilst the pack put down the platform at Wembley, allowing the likes of Tomkins and Briscoe to play, they failed to do this at Elland Road. That's why we were never really in it - not doing the basics in the first half took too much out of the side in terms of defensive energy expenditure, and it was always going to be a matter of time before Australia cut loose.

At least we have a core group players who have performed well in this series and will be there in the future - Tomkins, Roby, Reed, Hall, Briscoe, Graham, plus Burgess and maybe Widdop at the bare minimum. But more is obviously needed. Including perhaps a new coach. McNamara has done really well this time around, but I wonder if he really is the sort of coach to take England any further.

Sam was poor under the bomb yesterday because of the quality of the kicks which were superb although nothing is uncatchable imo and also the quality of the pressure from the opposition which was superb also.

He caught bombs for fun all season in super league and even turned some of them into tries but thats more down to the bombs not being as good and also the pressure not as good imo.

This is why we will always struggle against the Aussies because they are used to very high intensity and quality every week in the NRL but in super league half the teams are just fodder imo.

I seem to recall Wellens, for example, catching Lockyer's high kicks.

Tomkins wasn't great but he did have a difficult job. He has to make a standing jump while the Aussie chasers had a running start. It's obvious that they have the advantage in that situation. The ones that he didn't get close to are an issue but he's only 22. Everyone is praising Ryan Hall for his excellent performances but he's been crap at international level until this year. Young players make mistakes, they just have to make sure they work hard to improve.

The one time Darius Boyd faced a kick of the sort that Lockyer and Thurston were putting up was at Wembley, where Sinfield put up a lovely high kick that Reed was able to chase and Boyd made a real mess of that one. He's barely been tested since that moment.

I may be forgetting things but when exactly has he been "crap" in previous years?

hello phil

you're not doing yourself any favours here....and i still have a few pages left to read.

Basically we've got no chance of ever catching the Aussies up now they've worked out how to put up bombs that come down [iat an angle[/i.

Thats because he is a conventional full back who played that position for a long time and was very good at it. Sam Tomkins hasnt played there that long yet and is still improving.

Like i said if he was so bad under the high ball he would of been shown up a lot more in super league but theres nobody in the same world as Lockyer obviously. Watch people try and bomb him in super league next season and they will pay the price when he returns the ball with interest.

To the original poster who mentioned Phil Clarke's comments, even i cringed when he said it was uncatchable. I just cant see how any ball is uncatchable unless you cant get to it in time.

Interesting. That being the case you'd think the kicker would just keep hold of the ball himself since he's standing where it's going to end up.