"We can beat anyone on our day, absolutely anyone in the league. I'm confident of that, we just need to be consistent with it."
Tuesday 29 January 2019 18:31, UK
Catalans Dragons' new marquee signing Sam Tomkins chats exclusively to Sky Sports about the difficulties of leaving Wigan, Super League 2019 and the one time in his life he ended up playing rugby union!
Ask any major fan of Super League ahead of the start of the new campaign this weekend what the biggest transfer story has been, and it's a pretty safe bet that most, if not all of them, would say Tomkins leaving Wigan for Catalans.
The 29-year-old spent 11 seasons with the Warriors after making his debut in 2008, tasting Grand Final success in 2010, 2013 and 2018, Challenge Cup victory in 2011 and 2013 and clinching League Leaders' Shields in 2010 and 2012.
Since the age of nine when Tomkins and older brother Joel moved to start playing with Wigan St. Patrick - a feeder club to the Warriors - from Chorley Panthers, a deep connection has been built with the club.
As the 2012 Man of Steel winner attests to himself, Wigan will no longer represent a mere club to him but rather a family. Leaving in his prime could not have been easy...
"It was a really tough decision," Tomkins says, clad in Catalans colours after Super League's 2019 launch.
"Wigan is a family to me. I know everybody at the club, I've been involved with the club since I was 12-years-old, so it definitely wasn't an easy choice, but ultimately it was up to me.
"At this time in my career, at this time in my life, my family's life, it was a great opportunity to join a really exiting club.
"It's not about money, I could have earned good money at Wigan as well, the money certainly wasn't the case. Catalans are really starting to build something, starting with the Challenge Cup last year.
"They've had a little taste of success, but a little taste of it is never quite enough.
"I've been at Wigan and been very lucky to have been a part of some great teams, picked up five major trophies, and hopefully I've landed into another good one here."
********************
Having confirmed his move to the south of France in May 2018 - a time when Catalans were still struggling through the season - amidst some considerable furore both in the media and game in general, the Dragons picked up to make history.
Indeed, the French side became the first non-British team to win the Challenge Cup in its 117-year history when they travelled to Wembley and beat Warrington 20-14, having dumped in-form St Helens out in Bolton at the semi-final stage before that.
Steve McNamara's charges have transitioned from a club within minutes of Super League relegation in 2017 to one with real promise, and some superb players capable of lighting up any occasion such as Michael McIlorum, Tony Gigot, Lewis Tierney, David Mead and now Tomkins too.
And unlike any other club in Super League, Catalans represent an entire nation in the sport.
"I signed before the Challenge Cup was in Perpignan," Tomkins adds. "I wanted to sign for a team with huge potential and they proved what they've got. It's just about consistency.
"At the start of last year, they won two from 11, but then went on to win the Challenge Cup. So it proves that we can beat anyone on our day, absolutely anyone in the league. I'm confident of that, we just need to be consistent with it.
"Personally, I want to be consistent this year and play my best rugby. I want to have a positive influence on the club.
"And as a group, our goals are the same as every other person in Super League: We want to win everything."
Rewind three months and Tomkins was part of a Wigan side which lifted the Super League trophy just a few feet from the present interview spot at Manchester United's Old Trafford.
His third Grand Final victory - where did it rank?
"It's probably my best," he says.
"I always said 2010 would be my favourite trophy, but knowing last year was my last ever game in a Wigan jersey - I'll never play for Wigan again, I can confirm that, I'm too old now to be going back again! - on that famous field, Old Trafford, lifting the trophy. It really was second to none.
"We're very lucky, and I'm very lucky to be a rugby league player. We don't have many low points.
"That day was the biggest high in my career so far."
Having wrapped up the season in October, Tomkins moved straight to France in November to settle into things before kicking into pre-season on December 3.
"My wife and two children moved over last week, so I did pre-season on my own but quite a few people I work with at Catalans I already knew - a few of the players, Steve McNamara from playing internationally.
"It's been a bit of a whirlwind. I broke my hand in my last game as well so it was all full on.
"I think pre-season for any rugby league team is the same, the only difference being the weather was probably slightly better! It's full on, it's not a nice time of year for players, you put your body through a lot and it's an essential evil which we have to do.
"You can't be successful without a tough pre-season and we've certainly had that."
********************
Growing up with brothers Joel and Logan, Tomkins confesses that rugby league was always his thing. In fact, he says he never played anything else.
The oval ball of the specific 13-man code gripped him from when he was a child. Yet, he did end up playing one game of union - just one - in front of 50,000 people no less, at the home of English rugby union for the Barbarians in 2011. How?
"It was weird," Tomkins says laughing.
"I played for England rugby league against Australia at Leeds in a Four Nations final, and after the game I was having a beer and my agent called me and said: 'I've had a bit of a strange request.'
"So I said: '...Alright...', and he said: 'It's well paid, and you're going to play for the Barbarians against Australia next week.'
"I was supposed to be going back to Wigan, but he said they would send a car round to take me from Leeds to London. He'd send a kit bag down, boots, everything I needed, my agent sent it all, and that was it.
"I arrived at training the next day never having played a game of rugby union in my life. The coach was Graham Henry, who had just won the World Cup with New Zealand, and on the first day he said: 'right boys, we'll get you all together.'
"I didn't watch rugby union at the time, I didn't watch any of it. My brother had just signed for Saracens, but he hadn't joined yet. I had never watched a game of rugby union in my life.
"So they said: 'Right, we'll put you at full-back.' I didn't know what a full-back was meant to be doing, so Danny Cipriani called me over and said: 'You're a bit out of position'.
"Jerome Kaino was there too and said: 'When you're near the middle I'll help you and Danny can help you on the edge'. Then the coaches asked: 'How many games have you played before?' and I said: 'None'.
"Henry replied: 'No I mean even in school?' and I said: 'Where I'm from, we don't play rugby union.'
"He said: 'Do you watch it?' and I said: 'I've never watched the game or played the game!'. And we were playing at Twickenham on the Saturday!
"He ended up putting me on the wing because I didn't know what I was doing and the night before the game, Peter Stringer, who's now my good friend, was showing me clips in his hotel room on his laptop for where to stand during lineouts and where to move when there's a kick.
"I was playing in front of 50,000 people and I literally didn't know where to stand! So Peter's going: 'Look, see this guy here, you just stand where he's standing.'
"And that was it, I just bluffed it!"
********************
Tomkins' move to Catalans is actually not the first time he's departed Wigan. In 2014, he left to the NRL and New Zealand Warriors for a then world record fee.
What was it like to play rugby league in such a rugby union-mad nation?
"They're obsessed with rugby union over there, but they've also got a really strong core of rugby league fans.
"It's different, they're very laid back. I could walk through Auckland city centre and fans would just give me a thumbs up.
"If I walk through Wigan, somebody's going to get you in a headlock, you have to take five pictures, phone their nan, you have to do everything! So it's just a different set of people.
"But I loved it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
"It was a great time, a beautiful place and it probably spurred me on to want to move to France because me and what was my girlfriend, now my wife, we loved New Zealand but she fell pregnant the second year so I cut the move short and we moved back to Wigan, had two little boys. Now we have that feeling that we want to move away again.
"The opportunity to go to Catalans was too good to miss."
The French lessons to improve on Tomkins' Grade D at GCSE in the language have yet to start, but Super League is back this weekend as Catalans travel to Castleford on Friday night.
"I can't wait. Pre-season is a horrible time, nobody likes it. All it does is make you want to start playing.
"We have a tough, tough challenge going to Castleford. It's a horrible stadium, horrible fans, they get right on your back and that's what makes rugby league so special! Everyone's so territorial about their ground, and Castleford is one of the most intense places to play.
"It's a baptism of fire for us but I can't wait."
Tune into Sky Sports in 2019 for 200 live games from all areas of rugby league on our screens this year, including the Betfred Super League, World Club Challenge, Betfred Championship, Challenge Cup and NRL.
