He hasn't shone against Australia, but has shown the odd glimpse against them which you would expect from such a quality player.

I wouldn't say that this proves that Sam isn't world class though. Put Billy Slater in that England team against Australia and he wouldn't shine either IMO. In attack, a dominating pack and well executed moves are what allow the full back to receive the ball in space with a defensive line that isn't set in front of them.

There are obviously times when players create something from nothing but that's a rare occurrence against top class opposition. As a Wigan fan he's a joy to watch week in week out and often the loudest cheers from opposition fans are when he gets tackled which shows just how feared he is.

I actually hope he tests himself in the NRL at some point (not for a good few years) because I truly believe he'd be a success over there.

According to Forums like this one England/GB has had by far the best pack for the last decade.
Why is it Ellis, Burgess, Morley, Peacock, Graham, Roby, Wilkins, and Sinfield can not lay a platform?

IMO our starting pack can match them and sometimes even get on top. Having to bring average players off the bench has always been our main problem. Usually going into the last 20 our pack looks out on its feet.

When we do get in a good position, the lack of moves/organisation/structure is shocking and this is the main reason Tomkins will never look "world class" against the Aussies.

Because the aussie pack is still better despite this supposed best pack

lets be honest... Sam Tomkins is the best player is super league by a country mile.... he is an exceptional talent.

he tears defences up like no player i have ever seen.... he speed, agility and rugby brain is almost unrivalled.

for all the tiresome NRL loving trolls on here, he would walk into your league and be worshipped.

The NRL doesn't currently have a player of sams style.... i bet they wish they did though.

makes me laugh people like jonesy saying 'just kick that ball up into the air at him'.... yea you know loads about rugby league you mate'.

if you think he has a weakness in his game you're p*ssing up the wrong tree.

there is no better ball running rugby league player than Sam Tomkins... and as a warrington fan that's a horrible thing to have to say.

unfortunaley the NRL cant afford him, as he is already the highest paid player in RL.... we will loose this talent to rugby union one day.... and that will be a terrible day for rugby league.

*Cough* Shaun Johnson *Cough*

If Sam Tomkins has anything about him, this will be his last season. It's pretty farcical that he signed his last contract with Wigan, what on earth was he thinking. He should be playing NRL and needs to push a move there as quickly and as forcefully as he can. Staying in Super League and playing about 4 or 5 tough games a season and playing against amateurish players every week is no challenge for him. It's like a prizefighter staying an amateur and beating up on no hopers rather than taking on the big boys in the world title fights.

Isn't there cap going up by quite a huge ammount. whether any of the teams would take the risk on a huge salary is anouther question.

I still recall people going way OTT about that Featherstone match and making Fev to be something amazing - seems that trend hasn't changed.

Any team can swarm the opposition off a very slow POTB even more so when the ground is so heavy underfoot & on a small pitch that Fev have.

Try a fast game, solid underfoot, dry and hot with a decent sized pitch and perhaps even more importantly asking the Fev players to play week in week out at a decent standard of RL & the result would have been a 60 point slamming with Sam Tomkins getting a hat-trick.

Featherstone had their day but let's not lose sight of reality. Halifax slammed 60 points on them the following week.

Perhaps Halifax are the best team in RL?

Are you Steve McNamara? I rate your judgement as highly as I do his.

This line gets trotted out on this forum for EVERY international. Its embarassing that people think the english pack is as good as the aussies. Australia could put out 4 packs that are better than ours.

You hope Saddo!!!!

So, lets hit him hard and bomb him.... Yeah that worked.

Well there you go. Catching one bomb is enough around here to be evidence that he's as safe as Hampson apparently.

Sam Tomkins is an amazing attacking player. He is not an amazing defensive player, certainly not under a high ball. The Aussies exposed that flaw in his game in the last four nations. He jumped for balls and missed by miles, he let balls bounce that he should have caught. Unless he has much improved since then in that area, which is of vital importance if you are playing full back, then he is not the finished article as a rugby league player. He is very good, no brilliant in attack and truly gifted but Rugby League is a two way game and he is definitely flawed defensively.

So true, it is a long time since our pack came out on top over the course of the 80 mins.

If only we had Mickey Mac, then we'd do em easy.

shaun wane said it best today.

Sam didn't do too badly under the high ball from what I saw today.

He might not outplay Smith, but he'll do his best to batter him and the rest of their side.

I always though of you as a bit of an empty head tbh.

That is the first sensible post I have seen from you.

Fair play

Another interpretation could be that he's not the finished article as a full-back, and perhaps never will be. The ability to judge and time a jump for a high ball is quite specialized and he'll almost certainly never be a Steve Hampson in that regard. If we're talking about the complete player as a full-back, I'd agree he's flawed, but as a player in general, his sum total set of abilities is up there with the best - nobody is the 'perfect player' ( apart from me of course, its just I got too distracted by women and drink to play professionally ). His tackling is actually very good indeed relative to body weight ( on that measure, Rob Burrow beats everyone )

Got a few bites

His positional play in defence when I have seen him is pretty good, he has always been there abouts when a Try is scored against his team (I am talking mainly four Nations)

He has not had the body weight or technique to stop several of those tries but points for trying.
The only negative has been a couple of incidents where he has been late and come over the top with his knees as he did with a try Morris scored in a Test last year.

That certainly makes a comparison with Slater fair then, he's always happy to put the studs in on a man trying to put the ball down.

Not in recent times Browny, in the past he tried to get his feet under the grounding of the Ball, that was some time ago and the Laws were changed in Oz to address this issue.
He has never been a player to come in with knees to the back as a player grounds the ball, he had that a few years ago himself in a Test with a length of the field try with some no name trying to injure him as he was over the line. Almost caused a fight at the time.