Not watched video back yet - was he injured in 2nd half or did he just bottle it? I'm sure Pat Richards enjoyed taking the ball back in after every kick!!!

Its a tactic by our coach for Tomkins to conserve energy in the second half. He does it every week, nothing in it really.

Seriously? It's understandable in games you are winning easily, but very strange tactic when chasing the game to keep your main strike player out of the action.

Pretty pathetic wasn't it. I think it's part of the agreement for him to move to Union at the end of the season. Spent time with Saracens again this week.

Faz probably got him in to show the amateur code guys what a skilful rugby player is.

I seriously don't want Sam - or any other player in RL - to retire early to the amateur code. But if he does then there'll be others just like him not too far away. Sam himself has proved that. Anyone know or care what happened to a prospect we had called Ashton?

The last thing we want is for any of our top players going to the dark side.

If Sam goes anywhere let's hope it's to the NRL and stay in RL.

Who cares if they leave. Yes i would prefer our bright talents to stay. But one talent goes for easy money, another young league star comes alongm. On the wing (where Ahston would play) he would be competing with Hall, Briscoe, BJB, Broughton, Mcgilverayfor an England spot.

Many league fans were disappointed that Eastmond was going to union, then along comes Gaskell & Lomax.

If Ashton was still in league, am not so sure he would even be in the England squad.

yes of course i would prefer Tomkins to stay. But we don't need to be held to ransom for him to stay as another player just as talented will come along.

Tomkins does this week in and week out. It's a tactic to stop him getting clobbered on that first run in.

Blake Green, Mick Dobson, Jarrod Sammut, Ben Jeffries, Brett Seymour, Daniel Holdsworth, Rhys Hanbury will all be playing SL rugby next year, not because they are outstanding talents but because we arent producing enough players of requisite quality.
There is more than enough space for Gaskell, Lomax and Eastmond in our league when we have imports like the above playing in our league. When we dont need to bring in these types of player we can say that losing players like Eastmond isnt a problem.


But we dont have enough to start with, never mind being able to replace any we lose.

Maybe if we had kept Ashton, we wouldnt need to be giving jobs to Semi Tadulala or Patrick Ah Van?

Ashton was fullback or centre for us, if he had stayed Sam would probably still be in the halves and he would be fullback, then whos he got to compete with for England... erm Wellens? Briscoe?

We can not afford to lose these players.

You keep saying this but you've not given any evidence of it happening. I'm not doubting it, but I can't see why in playoff week Wigan would let their star player be off talking to another club from another sport.

Like CJ says, if he goes from Wigan, I hope it's to the NRL. Personally I hope he stays at Wigan for his career and becomes a great.

From where I was in North Stand I thought he picked up a shoulder injury at the end of the first half. I assumed that was why he was so keen to give the ball to Pat Richards every time he collected it, but if it was a deliberate tactic then I'm a bit perplexed.

I'll join you in that opinion

He did receive physio at the end of the first half, he has a bit of a tantrum with a Saints player too.

is this in reference in the bit in the first half when he ran sideways about 30m.... and then jumped on the floor to avoid being tackled?

I thought that was illegal.

Voluntary tackle isn't it? Should have been a penalty, ridiculous that it wasn't given.

No, it's a surrender tackle. Look it up.

last time i saw someone do something as blatant as that was Gallagher... the famous all black that signed for Leeds... he fielded the ball... saw someone running at him and jumped on the floor to avoid betting tackled.... he looked perplexed when the ref gave a penalty against him..... obviously its allowed in union.

maybe Tomkins was just practising.

Voluntary tackle is where you play the ball without being tackled - Hoffman was penalised for it in the CC Semi.

Going to ground yourself is a surrender tackle.

It wasn't a voluntary tackle, therefore not a penalty. HTH.

thanks for your help.

Any time

Quote ="Guerrier"Voluntary tackle is where you play the ball without being tackled - Hoffman was penalised for it in the CC Semi. Going to ground yourself is a surrender tackle.'" Wrong. Quote ="The Laws of RL"Voluntary tackle 4. A player in possession shall not deliberately and unnecessarily allow himself to be tackled by voluntarily falling to the ground when not held by an opponent. If a player drops on a loose ball he shall not remain on the ground waiting to be tackled if he has time to regain his feet and continue play.'" From the RFL website: www.therfl.co.uk/a_guide_to_the_ ... laytheball

Quote ="Guerrier"Voluntary tackle is where you play the ball without being tackled - Hoffman was penalised for it in the CC Semi. Going to ground yourself is a surrender tackle.'" Wrong. Quote ="The Laws of RL"Voluntary tackle 4. A player in possession shall not deliberately and unnecessarily allow himself to be tackled by voluntarily falling to the ground when not held by an opponent. If a player drops on a loose ball he shall not remain on the ground waiting to be tackled if he has time to regain his feet and continue play.'" From the RFL website: www.therfl.co.uk/a_guide_to_the_ ... laytheball

Ah okay. I'm not well up on all this voluntary tackle/surrender monkey stuff. It's probably been 30 years since I last saw one given at a game.

Stop making stuff up. When the [url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/~rflmedia/docs/rugby_laws_book_2007_%20(2).pdflaws of the game[/url are so readily accessible, there's simply no excuse to get things so completely wrong.