Sam Tomkins (born 23 March 1989) is a professional rugby league analyst for Sky Sports and former professional player, having finished his playing career with Catalans Dragons in the Super League. He is also the Team Manager of the England national rugby league team, working in a "behind the scenes role" for head coach Shaun Wane.
Tomkins, a product of the Wigan Warriors academy, played as a and occasional , across two stints for the Warriors as well as his time at Catalans Dragons. In addition, he also played two seasons in the NRL for New Zealand Warriors.
He is the two time Man of Steel, earning the title in 2012 and 2021.
He won three Super League Grand Finals with the Wigan Warriors in 2010, 2013, and 2018, as well as two Challenge Cup finals in 2011 and 2013.
Early life Tomkins was born on 23 March 1989 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Following the birth of Sam's older brother Joel in Warrington, the family had moved to Milton Keynes due to his father's work. In the early 1990s, his family returned to the North West, to Chorley, where his younger brother Logan was born. Tomkins' first experience of rugby league came when he was seven years old, after his father introduced both Sam and Joel to the Chorley Panthers ARLFC.
By the time Tomkins was nine, both he and his older brother had moved from the Chorley Panthers and were becoming more involved with the amateur Wigan St. Patrick's club, a feeder team for the professional Wigan club. To aid their careers, the family decided to move the short distance from Chorley to Wigan, and Tomkins remained playing at the club until his mid-teens. Reflecting on Tomkins' time at Wigan St. Patrick's, Bill Atherton, the club's chairman, remarked that "you could see there was something special when Sam came up through the club. There has always been something different about him." When he was aged twelve, he obtained a place on the Wigan Warriors scholarship scheme, and when he turned sixteen, Tomkins was offered a part-time contract for Wigan Warriors Youth Development club's academy. By 2007, Tomkins was featuring regularly for the Wigan academy sides. That year, he featured in an under-18s win for the England Academy against France Cadets; his early try helped establish an early England lead before he completed his brace in the second half after a sin-binning for a high tackle. At the end of the year, Wigan rewarded Tomkins with a full-time contract, giving him the opportunity to train alongside players in the club's first team.
Club career Wigan Warriors Debut season When Wigan agreed to release Trent Barrett from his contract, the club looked to find a long-term replacement. Tomkins was offered a one-year extension to his own contract, which would keep him at the club until the end of the 2010 season with another year optional. After signing the extension, Wigan head coach Brian Noble commented that Tomkins, along with Wigan teammate Mark Flanagan, "both have the ability to make an impact in Super League in years to come."
A pre-season unofficial friendly match provided Tomkins his first experience against top-flight opposition as he came off the bench during Lee Briers' testimonial match in a 22–30 defeat by the Warrington Wolves. Noble followed this up by providing Tomkins, aged 19, with his first team début on 12 May against Whitehaven in a fifth round Challenge Cup match. Tomkins became the first player in rugby league history to score five tries on his first-grade début, scoring his first three to complete a hat-trick within the first twelve minutes, as Wigan scored eighteen tries in total on the way to a 106–8 victory.
Despite this, Thomas Leuluai replaced Tomkins for the team's next match against Warrington, meaning Tomkins would have to wait for his Super League début. He played out the rest of the 2008 season in the reserves, some of his highlights including a hat-trick against Castleford, and another five-try performance against Harlequins RL. After scoring four tries against Hull FC's reserves, Tomkins was tipped to make at least ten Super League appearances in 2009 season by Shaun Wane, Wigan's reserve coach. He also received an endorsement from Ian Lenagan, the club's chairman, when he said, "I think Sam is going to be a world-class half-back and we want to give him his chance." Tomkins was named Reserve Team Player of the Year at the Wigan inaugural awards evening.
In 2009 Tomkins was awarded the Albert Goldthorpe Rookie of the Year Medal.
2009 season The club played Warrington over the 2008 Christmas holidays, as a pre-season friendly to Wigan's 2009 season. Tomkins claimed a hat-trick as the team swept aside a young and inexperienced Warrington side 44–4. Tomkins also featured in the club's two other fixtures during the pre-season, firstly against Huddersfield, and then against Leigh. For 2009, Tomkins was given the number 25 jersey.
Wigan faced their worst start to a season since 1966 after losing their opening three matches. Tomkins was brought into the squad and came off the bench against Harlequins for his league début during their fourth match of the season. Tomkins made a break early in the second half which allowed George Carmont to claim the equalising try. Tomkins took Tim Smith's starting place in the team for their next match against Bradford Bulls. After scoring twice for a brace against Salford, he earned his first league tries. He also scored in a fourth round cup match against Barrow. For the round 10 fixture against Celtic Crusaders, Tomkins was relegated to the bench as Smith made his first start in eight games. However Tomkins came on as a substitute to score his second brace of the season.
He also scored the final try of the match in Wigan's fifth round cup win over Wakefield Trinity, and although he was found guilty on a charge of kicking out in the tackle against another player, he escaped a match ban. With Smith expressing his desire to return home to Australia following the 2009 season, Tomkins was tipped by Lenagan as Wigan's long-term replacement at stand-off. Tomkins was named in a train-on squad for England's friendly test match against France, although he did not play. He was dropped in round 15 for Wigan's match against Salford, but returned off the bench and scored against Hull Kingston Rovers in round 18. Tomkins played every game for Wigan thereafter, except for the final regular round fixture of the season against Huddersfield, until the team were knocked out of the Super League play-offs by St. Helens. Included in this run of appearances was a hat-trick and Tomkins' first drop goal against Castleford in round 25.
In the same year he made his league début, Tomkins was named in the Super League Dream Team at stand-off, and was also voted by journalists in the Rugby League Writers' Association as Super League Young Player of the Year. At the Wigan's own awards evening, he was named Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year. Tomkins would go on to play for England during the 2009 Four Nations. He ended the domestic season with twenty-seven first-grade appearances, twenty-three of which in the league, as well as fifteen tries. In doing this, Tomkins had more than doubled the estimation of ten league games made by Wane during the previous season. He was given a five-year contract from the club.
2010 season
Following the play-off loss to St. Helens, Noble announced his departure from the club after not being offered a new contract, and five days later Michael Maguire was revealed as the new head coach of Wigan. In Maguire's 2010 squad, Tomkins' position as Wigan's first choice stand-off was confirmed when he received the number 6 jersey from the departed Smith. The club also signed Wigan-born Paul Deacon during the pre-season, with the intention of having him mentor Tomkins in an assistant coaching role.
Tomkins played in every match of Wigan's 2010 season. He started in three cup matches, scoring hat-tricks against the Sheffield Eagles and Widnes. He also featured in all of Wigan's fixtures of 2010's Super League XV regular season, with the team finishing top of the league table and winning the League Leader's Shield. By virtue of this the team qualified for the play-offs, in which Tomkins made a further four appearances on the way to Wigan's Grand Final victory over St. Helens—the club's first league title since 1998's Super League III, and Tomkins' first honour as a player.
Tomkins was played at scrum-half for Wigan's round 12 fixture against Harlequins with Sean O'Loughlin covering his position at stand-off instead. In round 19, again against Harlequins, Tomkins marked his first league appearance as a with the game's first score and a try-saving tackle on Lamont Bryan. The Daily Mirror reported Maguire as saying, "Sam wanted a go at fullback and played very well. He's a quality kid in any position." He remained in that position for the rest of the season, including the Grand Final, except for one match against Warrington in round 22 where he was reverted to stand-off again.
Over 34 total appearances, Tomkins improved on his 2009 record with 21 tries and four goals. In the league, he claimed four braces in total: once as a stand-off against Hull, and three times as a fullback against Salford, Hull again and Leeds.
He also scored a try in the 2010 Super League Grand Final victory over St. Helens at Old Trafford.
Despite finishing the season as Wigan's regular fullback, Tomkins maintained his place in the 2010 Super League Dream Team in the stand-off position. Also in the team was Joel Tomkins at . This was the first time a Super League Dream Team had featured two brothers.
At 2010's Super League XV awards evening, where his Wigan teammate Pat Richards was voted by his fellow Super League players as Man of Steel for having the biggest impact on the season, Tomkins retained his Young Player of the Year title.
He also received 2010's Albert Goldthorpe Medal for 'best and fairest' player of the season. He was also named Rookie of the Year by the Rugby League International Federation during the 2010 Four Nations, in which he played for England.
2011 season The previous season's transition to fullback was made permanent by the club when Tomkins inherited the number 1 jersey from Cameron Phelps, whose 2010 season was blighted by injury and was not offered a new contract. With speculation that Tomkins might move to the National Rugby League or switch codes to rugby union, Wigan offered him a new five-year contract keeping him at the club until the end of the 2015 season.
Tomkins made 34 appearances during the 2011 season: 28 in Super League XVI, 5 in the Challenge Cup, and one in the World Club Challenge, in which he scored a drop goal in Wigan's 15–21 loss to the St. George Illawarra Dragons. Tomkins received a match ban in round 6, for joining a fight in the previous match against Hull, meaning that for the first time since the final regular round fixture against Huddersfield in 2009, he missed a first-grade match. Due to his involvement for England in the inaugural International Origin against the Exiles, he was also rested for Wigan's away game against Castleford.