: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:53 am  

Alex BP' wrote:

Whoa whoa whoa, cant believe somebody mentioned England!

Yes, another very impressive performance from Sam.

We've gone from:

Debut off the bench against NL1 opposition in the CC

Debut off the bench in Super League

Starting lineup in Super League


Now he needs to have a good consistant run of games and attempt to establish his position. At the moment he's still only just begun to try and earn his place within the first team let alone the starting lineup, so let's take every game as it comes.

Another superb performance today, he made the team click & brought out the best in other players. His kicking game was very clever too. His solo efforts are probably the best thing to watch though, so skilful.

Keep it up Sam.

The thing i mentioned last night, is that every level he has stepped up too that you have mentioned above he has excelled at.

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:55 am  

Bert's Medal wrote:

As Trent Barrett correctly stated after going back to Australia - Wigan already had his successor in Sam.

:

Thats a quote that stuck with me when TB came out with it. From a player that has played at every level there is no bigger confidence booster.

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:31 am  

As I was saying to a few of my Wigan mates last night, you can see natural talent straight away. Sam Tompkins has got it and he's going to be a very good player, I think. In fact, he's already pretty good.

We've got a great new batch of quality young players coming through in SL. Burgess, Westerman, Owen, Shenton, Eastmond, Wheeler, Clough, Graham, Roby, Myler, Tompkins, Ainscough, Watkins, Moore. The list goes on.

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:35 am  

Blobbynator wrote:

As I was saying to a few of my Wigan mates last night, you can see natural talent straight away. Sam Tompkins has got it and he's going to be a very good player, I think. In fact, he's already pretty good.

We've got a great new batch of quality young players coming through in SL. Burgess, Westerman, Owen, Shenton, Eastmond, Wheeler, Clough, Graham, Roby, Myler, Tompkins, Ainscough, Watkins, Moore. The list goes on.

The young talent getting a chance at the minute in the game looks very exciting and finally gives us abit of optimisim for the future.

The likes of Shenton, Myler, Westerman, J Tomkins and Scott Moore have got a real chance of playing for England at the end of this season aslong as they keep their form.

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:45 am  

I hope he keeps this up and wigan can keep hold of him, the RFL should make a stance with him like they did with Cunningham, pay part of his salary to keep him in RL. Our game needs young stars like him.
I know i'm a saints fan but i really think a strong Wigan/Saints/Leeds and Hull is important if not essential to rugby league in this country.

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:13 am  

cadoo wrote: I am staggered how some people can defend having Tim Smith in the side. He is a shadow of his former self, I do not care what he has won in the past so far at Wigan he has not produced the goods. He has looked absolutely awful in defense his positioning is out of place, his tackling technique is ridiculous for a halfback and his general fitness does not look up to scratch. He is a big weak link in our defense and teams will continue to exploit this all season. It infuriates me when I see him shouting and screaming at the rest of the team when he is the one who is letting players get passed him! I appreciate people do not want to rush Sam Tomkins but I do not think we are rushing him at all in fact I think the opposite we have been far too slow to bring him into the first team. He needs more game time and seems to thrive on the expectation put on him. He is also very solid in defense as was evident against Harlequins. We looked a far better team with Smith off the field and Sam Tomkins on it. I don't care what age he is, if we're a better team with Sam Tomkins on the field then he should start next week against Bradford. He's ready. As for Smith IMO he needs a few extra sessions with Mike Forshaw as he does not look fit enough to play consistently for 80 minutes. He needs a lot more work on his tackling technique and we'll see how it goes from there. I'm sure there is a good player in Tim Smith somewhere but so far there has been little evidence of this and it's something we need to address to benefit both Wigan and Tim Smith. He's had a long time out of the game so I'm willing to accept to a certain extent but some of the tackles he's made this season have been shocking and he seems very rusty in that department and unfit. Something which can be fixed and IMO we should give him a couple of weeks out to address these issues, Sam Tomkins is more than capable of filling in for him until Tim Smith is ready for first team action again but until then he should not be playing next week. Hate to say I told you so. The majority of people were backing Tim Smith to start against Bradford http://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=397294&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

cadoo wrote: I am staggered how some people can defend having Tim Smith in the side. He is a shadow of his former self, I do not care what he has won in the past so far at Wigan he has not produced the goods. He has looked absolutely awful in defense his positioning is out of place, his tackling technique is ridiculous for a halfback and his general fitness does not look up to scratch. He is a big weak link in our defense and teams will continue to exploit this all season. It infuriates me when I see him shouting and screaming at the rest of the team when he is the one who is letting players get passed him! I appreciate people do not want to rush Sam Tomkins but I do not think we are rushing him at all in fact I think the opposite we have been far too slow to bring him into the first team. He needs more game time and seems to thrive on the expectation put on him. He is also very solid in defense as was evident against Harlequins. We looked a far better team with Smith off the field and Sam Tomkins on it. I don't care what age he is, if we're a better team with Sam Tomkins on the field then he should start next week against Bradford. He's ready. As for Smith IMO he needs a few extra sessions with Mike Forshaw as he does not look fit enough to play consistently for 80 minutes. He needs a lot more work on his tackling technique and we'll see how it goes from there. I'm sure there is a good player in Tim Smith somewhere but so far there has been little evidence of this and it's something we need to address to benefit both Wigan and Tim Smith. He's had a long time out of the game so I'm willing to accept to a certain extent but some of the tackles he's made this season have been shocking and he seems very rusty in that department and unfit. Something which can be fixed and IMO we should give him a couple of weeks out to address these issues, Sam Tomkins is more than capable of filling in for him until Tim Smith is ready for first team action again but until then he should not be playing next week. Hate to say I told you so. The majority of people were backing Tim Smith to start against Bradford http://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=397294&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:31 am  

I dont understand the logic of wanting to change the team after last nights performance???

For the first time in years we looked to be playing as a TEAM, and a damn good one at that. Forget that Bradford were poor, look at the fact that no-one in the whole 17 had a bad performance and all of them were looking for work/showing team spirit.

We even had dummy runner/second phase/support play. I for one would love to see us try that same 17 against Leeds, for 2 reasons, one because they are the best in the league and a good test, and 2 because we can then see if last nights performance was a one off or whether Noble has finally found the winning (or atleast a quality) combination.
If we go changing the team round there will always be that "what if" feeling of whether lastnights performance was a one off.

I would care if we got 50 points put past us against Leeds as long as when we had the ball we throw it around and show some exciting plays again.

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:45 am  

Saint Simon wrote:

I hope he keeps this up and wigan can keep hold of him, the RFL should make a stance with him like they did with Cunningham, pay part of his salary to keep him in RL. Our game needs young stars like him.
I know i'm a saints fan but i really think a strong Wigan/Saints/Leeds and Hull is important if not essential to rugby league in this country.

Agreed. Rugby League doesn't do enough to protect itself. If it keeps taking the 'everything will look after itself' stance it seems to favour at the moment, the one thing we can guarentee is that everything won't look after itself for too much longer!

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:55 am  

Blobbynator wrote:

We've got a great new batch of quality young players coming through in SL. Burgess, Westerman, Owen, Shenton, Eastmond, Wheeler, Clough, Graham, Roby, Myler, Tompkins X2, Ainscough, Watkins, Moore. The list goes on.

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: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:56 am  

x3