To be honest the RFL should seize ANY opportunity to thrust Tomkins into the limelight and the media - he's young, clean-living, supremely fit, extremely talented, dedicated and the kind of role model that any parent would want their child to aspire to.

Yes, he wears the wrong colour jersey, but there are plenty of players who have worn the P&B down the years who I wouldn't want anywhere near a microphone or camera.

Yes, I do mean SL. Anything that doesn't knock the game (as you are doing) is positive publicity. We may not be too keen on Sam, but anyone with any intelligence whatsoever must admit that he's a superb player. I can go back to when Alex murphy joined us as player-coach. Overnight he went from being a pariah to the best thing since sliced bread. If Sam signed for us the same thing would happen. Sam is the nearest thing we've got to Box Office. We have to use him in any way we can.

I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Tomkins is the closest thing to a household name we have had in a long time, the game needs to make the most of him and Sky have done that brilliantly this year through the Wiggo ad and the red carpet yesterday. The fact that he plays for our rival is immaterial, nobody on this board would have a complaint if he played for us and the circumstances were the same.

the fact that he doesn't play for us is probably a good thing. wigan are the household name in british rugby league, and sam is doing all he can to build the wigan club and the game in general up as much as he can. hopefully a few more young, media friendly players can join him, maybe even one or two from our club

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agreed.

Nice to see Wire fans are not all as myopic as the OP...

It annoys me when people can't appreciate another clubs achievements. For example you put out a very impressive, home grown side last Friday and sky rightly praised the hard work that has gone into achieving that over many years. For some reason that really winds folk up.

Last night was absolutely cringeworthy but more so becuase of eddie hemmings being up sams backside rather than anything in particular that sam did

the sams team segment isnt that bad but last night was awful to watch

QED.

If that came from anyone but you it would be regarded as a compliment. Most of us recognise that Sam is currently the best way of 'selling' RL in the UK to the general public. He is a star and comes across very well in interview.

Tbh the feature with him coaching the kids team is excellent and the reason I tune in.

Last night however was a bit of a stretch. Looks like they paid him to go and ask Crowe for a contract.

So you asked what it had to do with Rugby but already knew exactly what it had to do it.

What he says, would the OP be ranting this way if he did play for us? and how exactly do you know he is so far up his own a**e

I'd missed that one. I met him last year and spoke with him for five minutes or so and he was alright. He was very polite and seemed down to earth.

RL has had it's critics for not milking potential press coverage, yet when we do milk the connections we have, we don't like it because the guy plays for Wigan. I understand the rivalry, and no one dislikes Wigan, and Wigan folk more than me, but the guy is all we have.

He is known through RU circles via his brother and the Baa Baa's scenario and he is a recognisable face for people to link too, and no doubt he will be the face of all that goes right for England in the WC. For me, paint his face on the side of every bus for all I care, he is our marketing tool. Well done to Sky for me, lets get him and as many more as we can out in camera shot wherever we can, especially with the Ashes summer coming up and some notable RL fans in the England squad, maybe more opportunities to creep into the press.

i don't see it as a marketing thing at all, its Sky Sports Rugby league production team bending over backwards trying to convince him to stay in super league rather than go to the NRL or rahrah.

They never did this for anyone else that went, and i doubt they'll do it for anyone else after he goes, and go he will.

to be seen on TV.

I agree with all that as well. Sky only do stuff for Sky's benefit and that's always been the way. I also don't agree with how him earning lots of extra money from Sky benefits Wigan.

But this interview aside, he's one of the best marketable assets in the game and the RFL should be making good use of that.

It was quite possibly the most cringeworthy bit of television I have seen this year and it made me leave the room because I was embarrassed for him.

Don’t get me wrong, Tomkins is a supreme talent, he is great in front of the camera for a northern lad with no bona fide TV experience and he is a credit to the sport and one who should be a poster boy for English RL. I even get why he was there – RL-mad, Man of Steel film-star interviewed by Super League’s Man of Steel – throw in some cursory film chat and then move onto some cheeky RL banter and mention the Burgess brothers, etc.

However, I found the whole thing utterly excruciating, as I did the ensuing five-minute slurp-fest praising him for it in the studio afterwards. As far as a 60-minute RL magazine programme goes, Boots N All is an hour of dead air. SL Full Time shows all the tries, Back Chat deals with all the topical stuff this leaves an hour of precisely fudge-all to talk about on Boots N All. However, even compared to its usual RL vacuum, this week’s episode was utterly pointless and real car-crash stuff. Just dreadful.

Odd that you've only beaten us once in 3 and half years then.

I am just going to leave this here... www.samtomkins.com/

I am just going to leave this here... www.samtomkins.com/

Who do we have at Warrington who could have done that? Nobody.

Who ever needs to see any rugby league player interview an A-grade Hollywood film star?

Nobody.

you know what, i wouldn't mind if they had done this previously with other players, people are saying here, well, we're crying out for attention and publicity for RL.

Why haven't sky tried to do this before, why not try and get some players more exposure by doing some stuff like this? a la the footy show in australia?

Who's to say you couldn't get Richie Myler doing something like this, his better half is in the TV business so i would imagine he's reasonably familiar with her role doing bits to camera. Not everyone in the league sounds like jamie peacock or Chris Joynt.