The Wigan fans will lynch you, they are awfully touchy about petulant little Sam.

You've been listening to Eddie and Stevo too much.
He'll be good but lets not forget when he was 19 Briers got saints to a cup final. You're talking as if any young player that comes through today will automatically be superior than ones that have gone.

No I'm not. This thread is about Briers, and I was not the one that raised the comparison.

Which Tomkins is the gobby one that going to cost his team a game with all his mouthing off?

I think Briers has always had the ability to win a game, but also the ability to lose a game. With TS at Wire, I think he's fitter and more focussed and knows he has just a couple of seasons to win something.

What? You mean one of them isnt gobby?

I think this is a very good analysis.

And I think he effectively admitted as much in his post-match interview yesterday.

I did start the thread as a bit of a joke but if you look at this weekend, the quarters, and pretty much every week in between Briers has been the best half on the field full stop.
I was one beginning to think he may be past it but since Smith came in and dropped him initially he's been something else.
Regarding Tomkins I think he could well turn out a better player but there was a planet of difference in craft and guile between the two on saturday.

Since when has a halfback being a 'gobby sh*te' been a BAD thing? I love halfbacks to have attitude and swagger.

I see your point, I really do....but.....

When they haven't got an ounce of talent to back it up with, it comes off as pathetic.

The old school Pommy halfbacks, they could play a bit. They would go out, play test matches, and no matter what the result (And by the way, they actually used to win test series and world cups!) they would be hated by all Australians.


Now, they are just pathetic shadows of what not to be as a halfback. Hell these mugs get injured, replaced by kids, and their team doesn't miss a beat!

Players like that get bashed out of the game over here. You look at prize mug David Williams, so busy playing with his beard that he forgot that being owned like a b*tch by his opposite number on the footy field was a bad thing.

These players, they don't back it up. They have no credibility. When they are gone and become joe blow from what ever sh*tty little northern town they never chose to leave, no one will care who they are.


These losers, these pretenders, they are the reason the British game is a laughing stock.

The likes of Tommy Bishop must feel sick when he see's these idiots pretending to be what they simply never have been.

Do you not get out much?

He almost had a good point but it drowned in bile

I don't think he's well

But disappointingly, Australia will always have at least six players far better than Tomkins.

i don't know why everyone is raving about sam tomkins coz briers is clearly better, and tomkins is to big headed for his own good, certainly for a newbie in the super league life

he'd have a better career stacking shelves at Toys R Us than staying at wigan to be honest!

I dont know about being big headed? He does seem to rile opposition supporters but as has been said thats not a bad thing. He clearly has talent and if he channels it in the right direction he should go far.
Bit too much bashing of the kid going on at the minute it seems ...

Why?

Smith has clearly seen something in Tompkins because the last 2 times we have played Wigan our players have targeted Tompkins for sledging at every opportunity. At the HJ Briers was all over him like a rash and never missed a chance for a sly dig or a word, and last week I saw King and Clarke both doing similar at different times.
Good player but clearly his temperament is yet to fully develop and he can be put off his game.

Tomkins, like any number of halfbacks at Wigan since Edwards, will be hailed as the new messiah for a season or two, have masses of preassure heaped on him, fail to be able to walk on water and then dumped, devoid of confidence, having been replaced by a mediocre aussie.

With luck he will go to another club where he will regain his confidence under a competant coach and begin to deliver the form he promised early on.

Till then though, he will believe his own hype and be a penalty machine for the opposition.

He looks too spindly and fragile to make it at Test level he needs to bulk up a bit but he looks like a naturally skinny player.

Didn't you hear, he has an eating disorder.

Dunno, I reckon the big difference between the two is the team they have about them. Wire are pretty good, the wigan side they beat is full of liabilities.

Briers has done it in years gone by with quite shoddy Wire teams and carried them. Other than 00/01 (with Langer) and to some extent N Wood he hasn't had another half back to really fall back on either.
Teams easily shut him down and then he was criticised.
Tomkins has a long way to go imo

Probably to a club that is garbage at developing their own youngsters, so feed off Wigan's production line instead.

Huddersfield, for example.

Ha! Red and white striped pink tinted crystal ball gazing bullhooks! Tomkins will be happy if he's ever half the player Briers has been over thirteen years, not thirteen months!