Thaiday, Mannering, Pritchard, Creagh, Watmough, Myles, Mason..etc and Ellis & Burgess.

I rate Joel Tomkins as a player & agree he is one of the best second rowers in our comp. I hope he goes on to become world class, however at this moment in time I wouldnt put him in that bracket with the above players.

yeah i'd agree with most of players you've put, thoough i don't think Joel is far behind at all. People just seem to think if you don't play in the NRL you arn't world class, carrying on the way he is, he'll be just as good as burgess soon.

I was amused that Leeds were bleating on about the loss of Burrow and Webb, as it turned out the loss of Mossop or Hansen to back up Joel was perhaps the match turner.

Said it last season Joel is a unsung hero in the Wigan team this year he has really stood up and been counted, if this is the taste of things to come long may he wear the cherry and white.

Really hope so that would be good for England!!!

It would be awesome, we've got second rowers to spare really haha, well definatly will have in a few years.

Yeah, the England team in a few years could have 3 Tomkins brothers & 4 Burgess brothers. Bizarre!!

I would not swap Tomkins for Mannering........Simon Mannering has never seen World class, he is the kiwi version of Phil Bailey.

Tomkins may not be world class at the moment but he is going the right way about getting there.

Totally agree! Fair way to go but is heading in right direction.

I thought it was a world class performance at the highest level of rugby this league has to offer. He really put himself about in attack and defence. It was not the prettiest of games but the intensity was top notch.

Agreed he has a bit to do to be up there with the likes of Ellis and Thaiday etc but he is on the right track.

"World Class". Two words bandied about in this country far too often.

The blame can be pinned to Mssrs. Hemmings & Stephenson, used far too often over this past decade regarding various British players (and plainly wrong).

After thinking about it for the last 10 minutes or so I have come to this conclusion, basically the only thing that means we cannot call him world class is because he has not been tested at that level, but must surely be in contention to come the end of the year.

What more can you ask from a secondrow, he makes yards and breaks, scores tries, has a good off load and always gets on the front foot in defence which is quickly becoming consistently the most hurtful in SL.

While i agree world class is a phrase banded about too much Tomkins in my opinion has the game to get there all he needs now is the chance to prove it.

Were Ellis and Burgess "world class" before they played on Oz?

I hate it when people on here just assume an English player isnt "World Class" because he isnt playing in NRL or isnt an Australian, why cant players like Joel Tomkins and Sean O'Loughlin be world class? If Joel played for Melbourne exactly the same way he is playing for us everybody would be saying he is world class but just because he is over here people just assume there is better in Australia, rubbish. JT or SO'L are fighting it our for MOS this year IMO & i wouldnt swap them for any other Loose or SR in the world.

Because nine times out of ten over the last decade when the Aussies arrived at the end of the season to play in Tri Nations or World Cups, the touted "World Class" players such as Wellens, Cunningham, Long, Maguire and Sinfield have had their ar$es handed to them on many occasions.

I'm all up for Lockers & JT doing a Burgess and Ellis and going over to NRL if they wished - they would get my blessing (although not yet for the good of our team), I think they would rock. Would be interesting to see how well they fared. I remember taking an interest in the NRL when Andy Greg, Hanley and Edwards spent our off season playing in Aus. They were treated like Gods, in fact Hanley IIRC it was that spell which earned Hanley the nickname "The Black Pearl".

Good times.

Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat for me.

Turncoat.

Feka not good enough anymore eh?

Nah, hes leavin at the end of the year, it was time to let go

Sam Thaiday, Trent Waterhouse, Anthony Watmough and Adam Blair. There are no world class English second rowers, indeed the only world class English players IMO are Peacock and maybe Graham. Burgess has that potential but needs to tear it up in the NRL first. I'm not saying you have to play in the NRL to be considered world class but you have to be tearing it up in which ever league you're in. The term world class is banded around far too easily IMO, to me it means that if you picked the best 17 players in the world at that time, that the player would be in there. If you've never had a game for your country then you aren't world class, Joel is one of our best players but not world class.

Burgess and Ellis are smashing the NRL to bits.

Peacock? The lad is shot to bits, not even been England class for the last 2 years.

English players have to do it so much tougher to be considered World Class as when it come to the top level that are usually playing in a team that is totally dominated.

it is an absolute pleasure to watch that lad play rugby league, and even better that he does it in cherry and white.

Sam Tomkins is World Class


So is Pat Richards...

Sam Tomkins
Better stand offs: Lockyer, Marshall
Better scrum halves: Thurston, Cronk

That's by no means an exhaustive list of halfbacks that I would pick ahead of him by the way, you've got guys like Barrett who can't get a game at origin but are also better halfbacks than Sam. He's arguably the best halfback in super league though, although I do rate Eastmond very highly.

Pat Richards
well I don't think anyone's going to argue when I say he isn't as good as Israel Folou, is he better than Jarrdyn Hayne? Debatable, it all depends on the situation really, ball in hand it's Hayne, tackling it's Hayne too but if the ball is in the air or you're kicking at goal or you're taking a drop out, you want Pat Richards.