Re: Sam Tomkins

- psycho - · Post by **- psycho -** » Mon May 12, 2008 10:12 pm

is lueluia back for wire?

if not, play the lad, if he is, still play the lad! he could be the future of this club, the next long, barretts replacement ready made, lets not let go because he didnt get his chance like so many others.

fair enough its 'haven', but they are still NL1, gunning for a franchise and has anyone else scored 5? errr na!

ancientnloyal · Post by **ancientnloyal** » Mon May 12, 2008 11:01 pm

Fantastic debut! Although, it has to be said, Whitehaven didnt make it hard for him.

Got a standing applause after his fifth, scored his hattrick within 12 minutes of the start.

Apart from his tries, his play was ok, worked well with Barratt supplying him from the scrum/Higham and moved the ball out with ease, im sure those who watch the U21s would say this all the time... it wqill be different against a SL side but he's upto it.

cpwigan · Post by **cpwigan** » Mon May 12, 2008 11:49 pm

Made up for the lad. He is a fantastic young man with a superb attitude. At 16 he was small but had a growth spurt and now is somewhat taller and very zippy off the mark.

It was Whitehaven etc etc but he made a huge difference because he had so much energy, He was trailing forwards and trying to get involved as much as possible. Given the nature of the game I was looking at passing and by God there are some awful passes being thrown. Higham throws some shockers. However, Sam was putting the ball in the bread basket for every player especially Trent. I was overjoyed to see him scream at Hocky to position himself for the next drive. The one thing you did not see was his kicking game which is very good but he left that to Trent tonight. My big worry and it is with all half backs is defence but he made his tackles bar 1. He uses his brain when tackling.

Let's not get carried away but Sam will make it. Here is a suggestion. Play him off the bench and if need be put him on sometimes at hooker until McIlorum is fit.

To the doubters. We have kids good enough as long as the senior players do their part.

josie andrews · Post by **josie andrews** » Tue May 13, 2008 12:08 am

cpwigan wrote:Made up for the lad. He is a fantastic young mam with a superb attitude. At 16 he was small but had a growth spurt and now is somewhat taller and very zippy off the mark.

It was Whitehaven etc etc but he made a huge difference because he had so much energy, He was trailing forwards and trying to get involved as much as possible. Given the nature of the game I was looking at passing and by God there are some awful passes being thrown. Higham throws some shockers. However, Sam was putting the ball in the bread basket for every player especially Trent. I was overjoyed to see him scream at Hocky to position himself for the next drive. The one thing you did not see was his kicking game which is very good but he left that to Trent tonight. My big worry and it is with all half backs is defence but he made his tackles bar 1. He uses his brain when tackling.

Let's not get carried away but Sam will make it. Here is a suggestion. Play him off the bench and if need be put him on sometimes at hooker until McIlorum is fit.

To the doubters. We have kids good enough as long as the senior players do their part.

Have always rated Sam and agree he did have a growth spurt (asked him a while ago if he slept in a grow bag) he has a great rugby brain and tonight he played like shaun edwards use to. He could very well be a future captain of this club, I have said this before but I am a bit biased towards him I think he is GREAT.

Dubs · Post by **Dubs** » Tue May 13, 2008 12:14 am

I agree with the comparison to Edwards, very similar style

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Tue May 13, 2008 1:54 am

God wrote:Cp told the board that this kid was a good prospect and some people laughed him off.

They did? Who?

Most people don't know enough to comment as few watch the junior sides.

I feel he needs to put on at least a stone if he wants to be effective in superleague.

So its you who has reservations about him then!

Nobody has scored 5 trys for Wigan in god knows how long and hes done really well. But we need it against the likes of Leeds,Bradford,Saints and Hull for him to be really tested. And IMO he sould start aginst Warrington to find out where he is in terms of development.

I have no doubt if deemed fit TL will play against Wire. Averagely.

In any case isn't Tomkins a stand off? Where did he play tonight, 6 or 7?

If it was 7 we had our reserve stand off at scrum half and when Trent was out injured our reserve scrum half at stand off (T Coyle). I know the positions are interchangeable these days and we play in a way where they operate on either side of the pitch but its still a bit mystifying to do this IMO.

Dave

cpwigan · Post by **cpwigan** » Tue May 13, 2008 1:59 am

This may sound odd and I am not a fan of it but the way teams split their halfbacks these days favours Sam because he can manage the left side whilst Trent prefers the right side.

Sam is originally a 7 but in the 21s he plays 6

I still expect Tommy to be back on Friday. However, Sam has put himself ahead of Coyle IMO.

GeoffN · Post by **GeoffN** » Tue May 13, 2008 2:30 am

cpwigan wrote:Made up for the lad. He is a fantastic young mam with a superb attitude. At 16 he was small but had a growth spurt and now is somewhat taller and very zippy off the mark.

It was Whitehaven etc etc but he made a huge difference because he had so much energy, He was trailing forwards and trying to get involved as much as possible. Given the nature of the game I was looking at passing and by God there are some awful passes being thrown. Higham throws some shockers. However, Sam was putting the ball in the bread basket for every player especially Trent. I was overjoyed to see him scream at Hocky to position himself for the next drive. The one thing you did not see was his kicking game which is very good but he left that to Trent tonight. My big worry and it is with all half backs is defence but he made his tackles bar 1. He uses his brain when tackling.

Let's not get carried away but Sam will make it. Here is a suggestion. Play him off the bench and if need be put him on sometimes at hooker until McIlorum is fit.

To the doubters. We have kids good enough as long as the senior players do their part.

Very impressed with the lad. I was especially watching him in defence, and he impressed me there as well...reminds me a bit of McIlorum in that he goes looking for work, especially from marker.

He seems to have a good rugby brain (which I think is why he gets the comparisons with Shaun)...excellent positioning in attack (as shown by his 5 tries), and not afraid to take on the defence himself at the right time (his last try was a thing of beauty!).

We never really needed a kicking game tonight, but if, as you say, he's got that in his armoury as well, even better.

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Tue May 13, 2008 2:37 am

GeoffN wrote:...and not afraid to take on the defence himself at the right time...

At last! If there is one thing that frustrates me the most about TL's play it is his virtual complete unwillingness to take the defensive line on himself.

Why not I don't know as he is big enough, quick enough and seems to have a step.

If we have a half back in the reserves who will back himself and have a go then he already has one aspect of his game better than TL's.

Dave

GeoffN · Post by **GeoffN** » Tue May 13, 2008 3:01 am

DaveO wrote:
GeoffN wrote:...and not afraid to take on the defence himself at the right time...
At last! If there is one thing that frustrates me the most about TL's play it is his virtual complete unwillingness to take the defensive line on himself.

Why not I don't know as he is big enough, quick enough and seems to have a step.

If we have a half back in the reserves who will back himself and have a go then he already has one aspect of his game better than TL's.

Dave

Quite right, Dave, but it was also the fact that he always seemed to make the right decision. He could have possibly scored himself when he popped a short ball left to Hanson from a couple of yards out. By contrast, for his last try he spotted the defence were scrambling out to our left, where we had an ovelap, so he cut back "against the grain" instead and went himself. Good judgement, and excellent positioning also for his "support" tries.
I love seeing a half back start and finish a move, as he did with Hock down the left - in fact he and Hock had a good understanding down that side.