[2014 Mid-Year Tests] England

[TRF_Olyy]

Pulled a hamstring playing in the amlin.
Not being named in the baabaas squad leads me to believe he's missing the tour, but I guess there's the chance he'll be named with the saints n sarries lot.

 

[goodNumber10]

ah, ok... i'd not picked up on that.

Shame, great player, but i', pleased as I hope to see Roko tearing up the 'Saders.

 

[ratsapprentice]

He's injured... he was going to tour but stayed in order to rehab (sitting on a plane for 30hrs with a hamstring injury is a big no-no).

Either he's recovered (which he should be) and he'll travel on monday, or he hasn't and he wont.
He was never in contention for the baabaas game.

In fact I think Watson being injured is the reason Pennell is touring.

 

[goodNumber10]

yeah that makes sense.

where's Tomkins btw? i've not been able to find anything about an injury.....



*edit: just saw it's his back...

 

[TRF_Olyy]

He's injured... he was going to tour but stayed in order to rehab (sitting on a plane for 30hrs with a hamstring injury is a big no-no).

Either he's recovered (which he should be) and he'll travel on monday, or he hasn't and he wont.
He was never in contention for the baabaas game.

In fact I think Watson being injured is the reason Pennell is touring.

Ah yeah, I forgot Pennell was touring! Woops

yeah that makes sense.

where's Tomkins btw? i've not been able to find anything about an injury.....



*edit: just saw it's his back...

As long as the answer's "Not in an England shirt", I couldn't care less

 

[goodNumber10]

Tomkins is a good player, very underrated.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Tomkins is decent at premiership level - that's about all you can say for him.

 

[goodNumber10]

Tomkins is decent at premiership level - that's about all you can say for him.

Each too their own... I rate him. Not over Manu or Burrell but even so.

 

[TheSaffycen]

Tomkins is a good player, very underrated.

No he isn't. He's bloody useless.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Tomkins is a good player, very underrated.

Joel Tomkins?

 

[Peat]

This house believes that Tomkins is shat.

 

[Patchey]

This house believes Sarries poached the wrong Tompkins.

 

[goodNumber10]

Tomkins is very good for Sarries, and suits how they play... i think he plays better off Hodgson and Goode than Farrell as they both bring it to the line and he likes to take the ball late, he's got good upper body and he's very strong in the contact and quite often gets the off load away under pressure - see bath game in premiership.

Granted he struggled in the Autumn internationals but so what? He's not the first to do so out of our current internationals and i'm sure he may well have settled in if he'd had longer in squad.

Like i said wouldn't pick him over Manu or Burrell but he's not as bad as some people are making out, even in the AB's game he did some decent things with very little ball.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Tomkins is very good for Sarries, and suits how they play... i think he plays better off Hodgson and Goode than Farrell as they both bring it to the line and he likes to take the ball late, he's got good upper body and he's very strong in the contact and quite often gets the off load away under pressure - see bath game in premiership.

Granted he struggled in the Autumn internationals but so what? He's not the first to do so out of our current internationals and i'm sure he may well have settled in if he'd had longer in squad.

Like i said wouldn't pick him over Manu or Burrell but he's not as bad as some people are making out, even in the AB's game he did some decent things with very little ball.

What??? He kept fricking dropping it.

 

[goodNumber10]

What??? He kept fricking dropping it.

that doesn't mean he didn't do good things.

He tackled well, and he made some ok yardage. He got a lot of man and ball - and not in space. Lets be fair here, England didn't exactly set the world alight in the AI's did they? He wasn't the only person who couldnt' get into the flow of the game. and there are other guys who made far bigger errors than him yet we all purr about them on here.

Look, just so you lot can understand, i'm not trying to convince you all he should be a starter for England or anything, but i think it's a little unfair to portray him as some useless lump - he's been consistently good for Saracens, when fit, and given a consistent run without injury he'll be pushing for selection again.

 

[ratsapprentice]

He wont be pushing for England selection again.

...not a ****ing chance.


And I agree with you to an extent that he's underated - only in as much as people are saying he's useless when he's a perfectly serviceable premiership 13.

 

[goodNumber10]

why not a chance? who else would be ahead of him if he's fit and on form?

Tuilagi, Burrell, Joesph and that's all i can think of, so i humbly disagree such is life.

I'm just re-watching the Australia game from last year, he's excellent in defence- shuts down folau a couple of times (puts a very good hit in on him on his first touch and chases him down for his second) and does a lot of close work around the breakdown, getting off the line and taking people down early.

he's not a length of the field player but i don't think we've seen the best out of him yet.

Anyway, just my opinion, you guys don't have to agree.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Tuilagi, Burrell, Joseph, Trinder, Daly...

Once you get to 5th+ choice players it doesn't really matter, if there wasn't a Wigan connection and he didn't play for Sarries he wouldn't have been selected.
It just so happens that they want him to succeed in the hope that it encourages his brother to switch codes.

I say this as someone who was genuinely OK with him playing the Autumn, given the circumstances.

 

[goodNumber10]

sorry but, trinder and daley would not be picked ahead of tomkins.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Tomkins was never actually that good for Sarries, to be honest.
Consistently average-at-best, and always throwing blind offloads which more often than not went to the floor or the opposition. He was hyped up to a ridiculous amount by Barnes et al and that somehow got him capped by England. You say he looked better with Charlie than Owen....well duh! He came from Rugby League, so is used to trucking the ball up - up until relatively recently Farrell played a more conservative/deeper game, so of course he'd look better with Charlie bringing him into the gainline - any "crashball" centre would.
He's basically Matt Banahan, except Banahan, at the time he broke in to the England setup, was performing above par (on the wing) at his club.