It will be interesting to see what tactics the Aussies use against him next week.

All the leythers strongly supported Sam yesterday-he was a pleasure to watch

Sam's well liked at Leigh, he come to most of our Games, and Leythers know a good player when we see one, which in our league isn't very often.

Ok , so the salary cap is removed tomorrow. Could English RL teams compete with Union or NRL salary wise? I doubt it and certainly not in a sustainable manner. The odd club with sugar daddys would be ok until said person pulled the plug or went bust etc etc then they'd go to the wall. If for example Wigan matched a union offer of say 400k a year for Sam Tomkins it wouldnt be long before other players at the club would be looking for pay rises and Wigan would end up like they have in the past paying large amounts of cash to average workhorse players like Mick Cassidy ..

The salary cap needs to be looked at but in my view needs to be kept.

The SC hasnt and never will make clubs well run businesses, it wont, hasnt and never will give directors the financial discipline they need to run an RL club sustainably, there is a list of precedents as long as my arm which show that.

There is space and a place for rules which keep the game competitive, but the idea that allowing Wigan to pay Tomkins a competitive wage to keep him in this code would lead to them paying huge amounts to below par players is mental.

In our stadium very often either!

It was a pleasure to watch him play.

Anyone with half a brain would recognise that a player of Sam's talent should be applauded whenever he dons the England shirt - especially as he is fielding daily phone-calls from Rugby Union.

Only a bunch of moronic, braindead thickies with their own 'little club' agenda would fail to recognise that to do otherwise might pose a problem.

Better still, why not attend the matches and cheer him on?

It's nice to some of our local rivals can give us some respect. BTW Congrats on avoiding the winding up order. Hopefully you will go from strength to strength. Leigh for SL 2015!

Thank you very much, and good luck to you guys for next season.

I wonder, now that Millwards gone, Leigh will see sense and resurrect the Leigh v Wigan pre season friendly as a source of much needed revenue for the club.

Which club, us or Leigh ?

I to hope that happens Rogues, not sure why it was stopped, but i think if i remember right it was more Wigan's doing rather than Leigh's, anyway lets hope our two clubs can get together and sort something out, all the best.

Ok, but he would have to establish himself in the top half fullbacks in the NRL before he goes after Slater's tag.

it stopped due to them roughing up our 21's in the friendly. Also why dual reg and loans stopped.

I genuinely do not think it would take Sam long to establish himself as one of the best backs in the NRL, not merely one of the best full backs. He's just that good.

Sam Tomkins is the greatest British player of his generation. I've compared him before to Hanley and stand by those comparisons. Some of his play last season was simply sensational. He's at least as good as Jason Robinson, Andy Farrell and KFC - the best players of the SL era - were at their peak, and he's still learning and improving.

For me, only Hanley now remains a level above Sam (I am not old enough to have seen the likes of Boston or Murphy, and know that many who did say those players were even better than the great man - whenever Hanley is discussed as the greatest Wigan player ever, someone lucky enough to have seen Boston play pops up to remind us of his claim to that title!) but if he keeps going the way he has been in the last couple of years he may well equal or even surpass Hanley.

What you can already say is that this lad is a rugby genius, a special talent that comes along very rarely in British RL.

To be deprived of the chance to watch Sam try to fulfil his potential and claim his place amongst the all time greats of British RL would be a tragedy; losing him to the NRL would be bad enough, but losing him to RU would be nothing short of a disaster.

Don't think that was the case Pieman, your 21's gave a good account of themselves and nearly won as well, they were an excellent side.

I think, may be wrong though, it was a 3 year agreement, but the last year wigan for some reason could not make it, anyway lets just hope it can be resumed.

Think you are jumping the gun a little bit here mate.
Let us see what he does next season before you can compare him to some of those mentioned who performed year in year out.
I actually do think he is a very good player and actually would liken him more to Iestyn Harrismore than Hanley .
But he is not up there with the greats yet and next season will be a big one for him as other teams might find him out.
But we shall see.

I'm old enough to have had the privilege of watching Hanley at his peak, as well as being able to watch other pre-SL greats such as (in no particular order and trying to be non-Wigan biased!) Martin Offiah, Kevin Ward, Dean Bell, Inga Tuigamala, Garry Schofield (yes I know... but try to remember the unsuccessful but quality player for a minute!), Jonathan Davies, Shaun Edwards and Andy Gregory and a special mention for an unbelievable cameo season in British RL goes to Gene Miles.

I've also seen the best that the SL era has to offer - Robinson and Farrell (who straddled both eras and broke into the great Wigan side as mere boys, such was their talent), Cunningham (the best British hooker by a country mile), Sculthorpe (great player, but a whisker short of the other three IMO), Peacock and Fielden at their peaks - and this lad is better than all of them and all of the pre-SL stars I saw, with the exception (thus far) of the great man Hanley (and to be fair Gene Miles must have been incredible at 27 based on what I saw when he came over to Wigan at the end of his career).

You mention Harris - Tomkins is already a much better player than Harris ever was.

I do hope we get the chance to see Sam for another couple of seasons, because by then, if he can stay injury free I think the debate about just how great a player he is will be very interesting even for those who haven't seen the sensational season he has just had, which followed a great 2010. Sadly I expect he will be off to RU and we will be left with what ifs? and the depressing feeling of our sport becoming a feeder to RU....

3 seasons and 2 trophies does not a legend make. There are players playing in SL now who have achieved massive amounts more than Sam Tomkins and played at a higher level for much much longer.

it definately was the case, they gave a good account but were roughed up by an experienced mature team. Didnt sit well with Wigan

More trophies doesnt mean one player is better than an other, just means they played in better teams. Sam is better than Sinfield, but Sinfield has won loads more silverware.

Thats your opinion but you have to ask yourself why other teams and other players have won such a relatively large amount. Are the rest of Wigans squad really that much worse than the rest of Leeds squad to justify the huge disparity in success?

At times in the past decade, absolutely!

Though comparing Sam and Sinfield was a bit silly on my part though, with one being at the beginning of their career and one towards the end. O'Loughlin and Sinfield would probably be a better example, both excellent players but played in teams with a vast difference in overall quality.

What does the number of trophies won by a player have to do with how good he is? (Excluding the ones for individual achievement such as the Lance Todd and the Harry Sunderland that is (though the MoS, which has become devalued in recent years, doesn't really count)).

By that reckoning Ricky Bibey was a better player than Garry Schofield. Bizarre.