I have seen the game again and he went missing, most fans agree, bar Wigan fans. Would you make the same excuses if it had have been Eastmond or Myler, not a chance. It wasnt even until Eastmond was on that England had a spark.

Why is it that there can never be a genuinly subjective thread about Tomkins without Wigan fans ruining it by hyping him up and not allowing any criticism, albeit however small, of him at all.

I have seen the game again and he went missing, most fans agree, bar Wigan fans. Would you make the same excuses if it had have been Eastmond or Myler, not a chance. It wasnt even until Eastmond was on that England had a spark.

Why is it that there can never be a genuinly subjective thread about Tomkins without Wigan fans ruining it by hyping him up and not allowing any criticism, albeit however small, of him at all.

The spark was Burgess and Crabtree coming on, closely followed by McGuire coming off...

Tomkins is different class to Myler.

I think we should make Tomkins and Eastmond 6 + 7. McQuire has a shocking pass and should be moved out to centre. Tomkins and Eastmond are unpredictable to the opposition,and these two look as though they can play on the same wavelength. What I liked about these two is that they don,t have the mental block of the last international series, they should be given a chance to work some magic, given a dominated pack of course.

Eh? Are you serious? After what happened to Smith today?

tomkins had a very good game, also did eastmond, crabtree and burgess (Hes a machine in defence) as well as ellis who has come back a different player.

first half tomkins didnt get the ball, in fact england didnt get the ball unless we where kicking off, we couldnt get past the 3rd tackle at one stage, cant put that down to tomkins! danny mcguire should not be anywhere near the england team after that so called performance.

Shut up u tart and take those anti Wigan glasses off for once!

Sam saw a distinct lack of ball I'm the first half due to the boring one out football we played! What is it you expected him 2 do with no ball or field position or is that a stupid question for someone at your level of Wigan bias!

What a pathetic post. I have heard it all now, I am anti Wigan because I said that Tomkins did well overall but went missing in the first half

Lets just calm down here. Tompkins was non existant for the first 50 minutes or so. He didn't touch the ball until the 21st minute! He made some good runs in the 2nd half but he still lacks a decent passing game (unlike Eastmond who looks more a complete player.

I would start next week with Tomkins on the right, Eastmond on the left and Sinfield at LF directing play through the middle.

I'll go along with that. Do you think Tony Smith will have the nerve!

Just so you know - this thread was started by a usually bitter Saints fan.

That speaks VOLUMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But having 2 play makers split by a loose forward pivot was exactly what was wrong with our attack in the first half, and probably why Tomkins looked so ineffective early on? When Smith finally realised you can't run 3 play makers at Test level (because all that really means is you use the central playmaker - Sinfield - for nearly every play), England got a better structure where Tomkins and Eastmond could get their hands on the ball in some space, and we looked like a side with options.

I think Myler will play with Tomkins next week.
Many people are building NZ up better than they are too, i think we'll go okay as long as we dont get physically dominated.
Someone else needs to go right centre, whether that's Bridge or Eastmond, I don't know.

That's the sort of thing I'm scared of. We found a combination that worked in the last 30 minutes today, even if by accident - much like the Kiwis last year with the Fine/Leuluai swap. Why not roll with that and see where we can get with it, instead of trying yet another playmaker combination for the first time.

Tomkins got no ball in the first half. It seemed the ball was going to Sinfield and McGuire at every play. But as soon as he got his hands on the ball he was one of the main reasons we had a mini-revival in the second half.

He kicked, Passed & Tackled like a 10 year pro. And i'm not saying this because I am a Wigan fan, he was, quite simply, epic in his first test against the Aussies and managed to get Slater so wound up he got himself Sin Binned.

Don't let these anti-Tomkins/Wigan fools cloud your judgement....Sam was the major reason the score stayed respectable. If you don't believe me, go back and look at every try we scored in the second half and I guarentee you a certain Mr. Tomkins had a major part in setting it up.

Him and Eastmond next week should be a nice combination.

The reason he was able to do this was because our pack had gotten on top of the Aussies, its that simple, build him up all you want but it wasn't Tompkins who started the comeback, it was the fact we were dominating the Australians physically. He wasn't Epic at all, he did OK.

He did go missing in the first half, but our forwards were gettin smashed and they outclassed us, simple as. At least he had the guts to roll his sleeves up and have a go, which is more than can be said for some.

lol

I think people are going abit OTT.

The way people are going on you'd think tomkins just delivered a masterclass.

He put in 2 decent kicks.

Tried numerous hollywood steps and lost ground on all of them bar one which created a try.

I think the big positive is he's unpredictable and willing to try something, rather than the usual run along the line dummying which all english halfbacks seem to do.

But let's get a bit of perspective.

sounds like a fair assessment, Wigan fans calling him 'epic' is why people then come on and counter statements like that by pointing out his flaws and get accused of anti-Wigan bias.

It was a Saints fan who started the topic

Yeah, but he's a tard.

Yeah but it was A WIGAN fan who claimed his performance was epic



''It's on, it's on in back play, wigan and leeds fans are going at it over tomkins''

He surprised me and looked like a very good prospect. I thought Eastmond also looked like causing problems and for me they would be my half back pairing for the next 2 years. Give them a chance to and hopefully by the next WC we will have a great half back set up.