You must be on about a different player because Charnley is one of the hardest working wingers I've seen at Wigan. He constantly takes the ball out from his own line and that's why he's one of the top couple of metre making wingers in the league.

If Horne is earmarked for fullback next year, does anyone have any idea who might be about who can come through and cover this specialist position. Me thinks Lynne isn't up to it and Shaul is a few years away yet!
Looks like we may have to trawl the lower divisions to try and unearth a good up and coming player who can provide decent cover and eventually replace horne when he retires - as we don't seem to have a natural replacement coming through at the moment !

Why is it? All he's saying is that he wouldn't expect Tomkins to [iwant[/i to move from fullback because that's where he is at his best. Even though as you say it's a team game and it may be in Wigan's interests, that's the club's perspective not his, and if there's one player in SL I wouldn't be surprised to put himself ahead of the team's needs, it would be Sam Tomkins.

fingers crossed on jamie ellis yet. he has yet to show his eye for a try yet. i must admit the more time that goes buy the less you feel he is the diamond in the rough we all hoped he would be but im still holding out for a break through performance.

I think Matty will stay with you all season unless there is an injury to Tomkins with us at Wigan. He won't get any game time at Wigan as no one in the league would displace Sam never mind a 18 year old, although he will be a future star.
I cannot ever see us moving Sam to 6 or 7. I am certain we will bring someone else in. Wigan have a lot of big earning players leaving this season and will have a lot of cap money to play around with. We will resign Finch - the Wigan fans love him - and we will bring in a top class 7. I would love Matty to stay all season with Hull as I think he will learn a lot under your new coach and Wiganers will now tune in to cheer on Hull as a gang of us did against Leeds!! Seems a win win to me!!

Yeah, agree that Jamie Ellis looks to have the basic skill-set and may well make it as a SL player but only in the halves, don't see him at Full Back!
Who's gonna pick up the no. 1 shirt next year on a regular basis when Hornes out ? Think we need to find another half decent 'project' from somewhere as FB seems one position in the under 20's where we don't look too strong.

TBH i think next year be sam's last and expect him to go to aussie

Yeah, I'm sure that all the NRL clubs would love to buy him out of a 5-year contract.

Depends on sams desire, burgess was under contract at bradford didn't stop him going

You wish!!!!!!

sam is the highest paid player in superleague and is still young enough to see out his current contract and still be the English games hottest property. so the nrl opportunity has a massive shelf life for him

Because he's guessing his emotion, I was hoping for quotes from Tomkins to back it up.

And Tomkins will be there for another 3 years.

Quite real thanks.

Gentle said he wants Horne at fullback so why woukd we wait three weeks just to satisfy a loan player. Plus Westy is back and may play 6 or Whiting may stay there. So with Whiting, Aspy and Westy battling it out for two spots (13&bench) one would miss out if Horne plays 6 and Russell plays 1.

Gentle wants Horne at FB long term so unless a deal can be done for Russell, which seems unlikely, then why not make the switch straight away. With Whiting staying at 6 and Westy and Aspy sharing 13.

We dont owe Russell or Wigan anything.

Speculation/guesswork about players is half of what these boards are made up of, whether it be about where they want to play position-wise or club-wise. Any time any of us say where we think a player will be playing in the near future (like you about Horne being our next fullback) it is guessing the emotions involved (unless you believe Horne will be making the move to fullback entirely against his will with absolutely no say in the matter). Given that he was saying he thinks fullback is Tomkins' best position, it's not a 'strange conclusion' at all, it's an entirely logical one on the assumption that Tomkins thinks likewise because most players will probably want to play in what they think is their best position (something Gentle acknowledged by asking our entire squad what they feel their best positions are).

The reason I think Horne will be fb later this season and next is because of the reasons you give.

Gentle asks players where they want to play, which would suggest he's spoke to Horne about it, and the backroom staff have come out and said he'll be going there.

When has Tomkins said fb is his best position, when has the Wigan coaching staff said he'll be only playing fb in the future?

You're right about the speculation and guess work, alot of mine is made up on things I read from press reports or even from what, to me are, trusted posters put on here. Not conclusive sure but thats all I was asking, how he has come to his conclusion that Tomkins 'wants' to play fb and that without any 'evidence' how I find it to be a strange conclusion.

Some posters

Tomkins SL's highest paid player, where did you get that gem from ?

one of, yes, not THE, I wouldn't have thought.

Bear in mind the RFL have helped Wigan out with him to stave off RU it could well be true.

Yes he is.

[urlhttp://superleague.co.uk/article/rfl-grant-salary-cap-dispensation/23957[/url


[i"Wigan have already taken advantage of the relaxation of the regulations to top up the salary of England full-back Sam Tomkins which they say will comfortably make him the best-paid player in rugby league."[/i

The RFL also made him the face of that Super men program, allegedly to top up his salary more.

You were talking about Horne at fullback before the club announced anything other than McKinnon's departure, so either you have someone on the coaching/playing staff giving you info or it was guesswork based on your assessment of Horne's abilities and where he/the club would like him to play.



More pure guesswork, unless you have access to Gentle's surveys he handed out. Where is the difference between thinking this has happened because it's been announced Horne will be playing there, and assuming Tomkins likes playing fullback because he actually IS.



Wasn't there a Wigan fan on here during the work saying that Wane has said FB is Tomkins' best position and he has no plans to move him for the foreseeable future? And to turn it around, when has Tomkins said any other position is his best?



The main point I disagree with you on here (in fact the only one I took up, I'm not even saying Tomkins won't end up on the halves) is your seeming opinion that speculation and guesswork is only justifiable based upon journalism (notoriously unreliable a lot of the time) and internet gossip, and if based upon an individuals own interpretation of events/facts it is 'strange'. I fail to see how something that somebody tells you is any stronger 'evidence' than what you see with your own eyes.

The poster gave an opinion that was consistent with his apparent reasoning and made no attempt to pass it off as fact IMO, yet you challenged how he got there in what was IMO a condescending manner. I don't think it was fair.

I wrote:

and



I have not said that Tomkins 'want's to' or 'doesn’t want to': I said I cannot see that he would want to.

The main reason is that he plays his best rugby at FB

I'm not a frequent visitor of the under 21's but how will this affect Jamie Shaul and Jack Briscoe.

Jamie Shaul kept Reece Lyne out of the full back position for 7-8 weeks and hasn't got a look in and Jack just seems to be stuck in a time warp development wise, aren't they good enough? Do Hull rate them?

Sends out some bad messages to the youngsters IMO if were bringing other teams youngsters in but we also can't promote everyone into the 1st team an dhave to draw the line at somepoint.

Can't argue with his performance on Saturday but in the long term weres the benefits?

Shaul is quite far away from 1st team IMO, although does look a decent prospect. Briscoe has been moved from Wing, to Full Back, to centre, back to Full Back - he doesnt look like nailing down a position at present.

Neither Shaul or Briscoe will ever play 1st grade for the club, neither of them are good enough IMO.

Saul Beavis who the club were really high on has also been a massive let down so far and is still stuck playing fullback for the 18's instead of making the step up to the 20's.