Entertainment For Lively Minds
Sam Tomkins : the greatest British rugby player playing today
He’s faster than most. He can spot a gap no-one else can see. He can place a kick to perfection, catch a high ball under pressure, produce a try-saving tackle. He can dummy, he can shimmy, he can score. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Wigan Warrior, the finest rugby player playing today – Mr Sam Tomkins.
I was brought up on the Wales rugby union team of the 70s and marvelled at players like Barry John, Phil Bennett and Gareth Edwards and their way of making the impossible come true - when they were surrounded by opposition players, with apparently nowhere to go, they'd suddenly find space and were away to the tryline.
Apart from Jonathan Davies, the Wales rugby union and British rugby league great, and Wales’ Shane Williams, I haven’t been excited about a rugby player since then – until I saw Sam.
He has a chance to show what he can do on a national stage when Wigan play Leeds in rugby league’s Challenge Cup Final on Saturday at what should be a packed Wembley Stadium.
I love Sam's all-round ability. He’s only 5ft 10in and 12 stone but he can power his way through a heavily-defended line or bring down a huge forward. Not many 'Fancy Dan' half-backs can do that.
But it’s his outrageous attacking play which truly amazes. When a pass looks like the only option, he’ll suddenly go off on a mazy run, throw an outrageous dummy or charge his way through the tiniest of gaps. You can’t believe he’s going to score but he usually does. He’s only 22 but has the confidence to try anything.
Sam seems to have gone top another level this season – he’s top try scorer in Super League, he’s made the most clean breaks and is the biggest ‘tackle buster’.
What a contrast with the England rugby union team. Judging by the game in Wales recently, their strategy is less blood and thunder and more thud and blunder, with no-one seemingly having an original idea to open a defence – it’s back to the Charlie ‘Crash Ball’ Kent 'glory' days of England rugby union of the 70s.
With many national papers barely covering rugby league these days, players like Tomkins are undervalued while more prosaic rugby union players are hailed for skill that is commonplace in league – the pass out of the tackle or the run from deep, for example.
Ah well – come on Sam , come on Wigan!
Here he is in action, complete with Eddie Hemmings' Partridge-esque commentary.
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I'll see your Sam Tomkins
and raise you an Israel Dagg.
Aussie. Halfback. Daryl
Aussie. Halfback. Daryl someone? saw him in the State of Origin and thought he was tremendous.
I think comparisons between the two codes are invidious; very few have been successes in both - Jiffy, as you say, Tait, maybe Watkins
They're different games and I treat them as such. Greatest RL player? Maybe; greatest rugby player? Much more debatable.
There are quite a few successes
I suspect you're thinking of Darren Lockyer?
There are quite a few examples of players who were successful in both codes. Jonathan Davies and Billy Whizz are just two that instantly spring to mind. John Bentley and more recently Chris Ashton. Quite of few of the England Union team back's are ex-league.
In my youth I played both codes (League on the quiet as we weren't officially allowed to play both) and found League to be by far the tougher game. Being a slight scrum half, I could get away with my lack of bulk in union, but not in League - as evidenced by my Dad having to collect me from A&E 3 times.
Both codes
Dai Young did pretty well.
He's a cracking player
and full back suits him down to the ground. I hope it is a competitive game on Saturday - but I suspect it's going to be a whitewash.
Aside from that I'm really sorry but I can't wish you or him good luck on Saturday - in fact I hope you both choke on your Pooles. I have no shame in admitting that I truly hate the lot of you !
I'm a Union man whose more and more
bored by the preponderance of 19 stone behomoths bashing into each other, setting up ruck after ruck, collapsing scrums, ignoring the offside line to close down the game etc etc... If I lived in the north, I'd have no hesitation in watching an RL team over an RU one - it's becoming a faster, more skillful, more action-packed, more entertaining game than RU.
As a neutral, I just hope for a great game on Saturday but you're right about Sam Tomkins: he's an extraordinary talent.
Couple of current Union players
James Hook has the "flair" that many Welsh players used to possess, Australia's Kurtley Beale is an extraordinary talent.
Not the same type of player but Dan Carter possibly rivals Gareth Edwards as the greatest to have played the game.
How long
before the WRFU sign him up?
Olthwaite..totally agree on England. How did we get from the try below from Chris Ashton last Autumn to the current one dimensional etc etc rant, rave ad infinitum? Sadly for the Rugby World Cup, most teams tighten up when the tournament starts, the flair goes out of the window and no one risks anything apart from teams like Fiji. Johnson will play the very controlled narrow way he knows best. At least the 2003 vintage had Jason Robinson and Will Greenwood.
It's rugby
It's crap. Try kicking and heading the ball rather than picking it up (apart from throw ins and goalies obviously). That requires skill.
But we're good at rugby.....
.....we're crap at football.
I'll be watching out for him
I'm going to be there tomorrow (in fact later today).
I'm there as a neutral, although my Leeds supporting friend who got me the ticket has apparently also got me a Leeds shirt to wear.
Dirty Leeds
It's customary for Leeds fans to shout out "Dirty Leeds". It's an encouragement to the players to get their jumpers dirty through getting stuck in.
I suggest you shout it out every 10 minutes or so in order to integrate with your new friends and impress them with your enthusiasm..
"Match report"
We had seats exactly in line with the half way line.
Had I used your refrain of Dirty Leeds I'd have probably left the ground a lot the worse for wear - mainly because we were surrounded by Wigan fans who's primary purpose in attending seemed to be sinking as many pints of that pissy lager Wemberlee sells in the allotted time. The rugby seemed a secondary reason for their attendance. Consequently I'm sure I'd have been adopted as one of their own and plied with a fresh pint every 15 minutes.
Heading off to Wembley now...
Going as a neutral (or being a Bradford Bulls fan, a neutered) but looking forward to seeing Tompkins on the wide open spaces of Wembley.
Going with my dad too, after a tough 12 months for him. £5 says I don't get past the second verse of Abide With Me without shedding a tear...
Yep.....
....amazing player with an amazing running style.
He always looks as if he's going to topple over.
I'm off to the game today (5th visit to the new Wembley.....5 Rugby League games) but there's not an obvious team to choose for the neutrals as there would have been if Castleford had got there.
the elder Tomkins wasn't too shabby either
that was a great try the two of them put together.
I have a close friend whose son is on the books at Wigan, so they will be delighted with the result. Credit to Leeds though for coming back so strongly. The passing in league is quicker and pin-point accurate. Watching the ABs and Wallabies it looks sluggish in comparison.
Fabulous try by the older brother!
Great day out, again, but I did get my annual reminder why I avoid all-seater stadiums like the plague.
In our row (good seats, central view of the pitch) people were up and down like a hooker's (the profession, not the position) knickers.
What I don't get is this.
The game lasts 80 minutes, when it is over that is it, it will never exist again.
So why go to a sporting event and spend half an hour of it at the bar or in the toilet?
Truly baffling.
There must be an 'up-and-down' merchant on this site, so can you please explain it to me?
My thoughts as well
As noted above, we were surrounded by Wigan fans, on their first day back at Wembley for years. Wouldn't they want to relish the occasion? I'm sure in other parts of the ground Leeds fans were much the same, although it's only been 12 months since their last visit.
Also, with the price of the tickets, I want to get my money's worth watching the action. So all that time spent going to and from the bar and in the gents has probably cost in £s/minute another £25 or more.
That might explain
why there appeared to be so many empty seats in the stadium. I imagined it would be a sell-out.
Empty seats
There were huge swathes of vacant seats that were unoccupied for the whole game. The attendance was 78,000 or so - leaving 12,000 empty.
I would guess
that, seeing the areas of the ground that were empty, the seats belonged to Wembley debenture holders who are entitled to tickets for all events staged there, and didn't bother claiming their tickets.
And on a more partisan note, it was good to see the Whineos lose!
I don't think so
All the debentures are in the middle tier, at "Club Wembley" level. The empty seats were mainly in the areas that are always empty when Wembley doesn't sell out.