Anything to back this up?



From my understanding NZ Warriors fans thought he'd be better than he actually was and were initially disappointed.

Matty Smith, a poor man's Paul Deacon. And Deacon was nowhere near international class. Even the Wigan fans have finally turned on him.

Twitter mainly (not a reliable source I know) and I have kiwi relatives who've said similar. Some probably were disappointed, but he couldn't play the same way he did at Wigan. NZW are a totally different machine (and not a dominant side) and he had to play second fiddle to Shaun Johnson most of the time who seemed reluctant to give him a pass. Johnson, incidentally, is such an odd player he's outstanding internationally but at club level looks like a headless chicken half the time.



I may be slightly biased but I actually have watched the majority of his games and he was still breaking the defence, setting up tries and confusing defences all the over the shop.

I'm just betting that the majority who are saying he was a failure in the NRL and couldn't hack it, didn't actually watch him very often, if at all.

I call bull on a few of your points. Tomkins has been garbage and nowhere near lived up to the price tag. If Warriors have been happy with him they'll be cartwheeling to matches next year with Tuivasa-Scheck. When he has been injured they have looked no worse for having Lolohea at 1. He's had no support game through the middle, instead playing like a 2nd 6 and he's probably been the worst defensive fullback in the comp. He hasn't been on the level of the Munsters, Tedesco's, Whitens and Moylans without even considering the top level 1's in the NRL like Slater, GI, Boyd, Dugan and Tuivasa-Scheck.-

Next point about Shaun Johnson. Headless chicken? Really? He single handedly dismantled several defences with his step and dummy when they looked out of options as well as offering them structured play and a cracking kicking game.

Okay thanks for that. Like I've said he was injured for a lot of this season, hence explaining a large part of his form, he's barely had chance to get going and it still remains true that NZW don't play him correctly. It's infuriating to see him never get the ball in a decent position, (as Johnson just overlooks him) his passing has still been excellent and he's still set up or at least had a hand in several tries this season. I'm a Melbourne fan and if you think that Cameron Munster is a better fullback then that just shows how utterly ridiculous you are being.



I was mainly talking about 2014 in regards to him apparently being a failure but okay.

About Johnson, that's why I said half the time. He is either on fire or clueless I was just making a comparison with his international form. I completely disagree with him offering structured play!



Tomkins was never going to live up to the price tag as NZW are a poor team that Tomkins just doesn't fit in with.



I'll not bang on about it anymore because I don't really need to justify how good Tomkins is as he'll do that himself when people actually start watching him again next season. Although they probably still won't because some fans are so blinkered they can't see talent when it's right in front of them.



Tomkins and Hardaker will both play for England and the side will be better off for it.

Sorry, I lied about stopping there.

I'll just back up my point with a few stats, every loves those. Whilst his defence was still not great (literally nobody is denying that) his attack in the NRL was far from 'garbage'.

In 2014 he was in the top 15 players in the competition with Tries (14th), try assists (14th), line break assists (8th) and tackle busts (4th). Yes there's been a season since but injury etc. The point is, he certainly wasn't garbage.

I think ToffeeLady's got a crush on Sam.

Wasn't there a recent stat where he made only 24m in 80 minutes ?

Personally for me I would have Tomkins at HB and Zak at FB. It's more to do with I think we will get a better performance from Sam at HB than we would Zak in the centre if that makes sense.



I agree Sam is a fantastic talent as is Zak. Equally as fans blinkered about sam. There are the same number being blinkered about Zak

Here's a snip from a post I put on a previous Hardaker/Tomkins debate towards the end of the NRL regular season... Think Tomkins played 1 more game after these stats, and managed to eventually fall over the line for a try....









How anyone can seriously justify picking Tomkins at fullback over Hardaker is unbelievable.... Tomkins either moves to the halves or doesn't get a game for me - the 2013 Tomkins no longer exists, and I'd argue that the 2014 version wasn't much better than today's..... A quoted above - Hardaker by plenty (though I'm happy to see him sit out the tournament and rest up for what will be a huge challenge at club level in 2016).

Whilst his open field running was (2013) excellent, Tomkins defence is poor and he can't catch. 1 out of 3 key attributes makes him a poor fullback in comparison to Hardaker. Add to the fact that, for whatever reason, be it injury, home sickness or whatever else, he hasn't been the player he was for 2015.



Of course, he's the ideal first choice England full back!



Seriously though, if, as has been suggested by ToffeeLady his key skills are running and passing, shouldn't Tomkins be playing at 6, or maybe even centre, rather than suggesting ZH is played there?

I reckon McNamara will pick him but it should be Zak at 1, Widdop at 6 and Gale at 7. That's not just on form but Ratboy looks like a shell of the player that tore up Super League and could do with a season where he's the main man at Wigan before a recall.