Hes played half a season and already looks as good, if not better than that support player you call a stand off.

Tomkins can pass to his right, can tackle, can break a tackle, doesnt run sideways, is up for a bit of biff, can kick and can organise. Traits your support player of a stand off, doesnt have.

But yeah, hark on about all his grand final medals. Doesnt mean jack when we are discussing individual skills.

Correct. Which is why Tomkins had more room to play as did Sinfield.
Your backs can only play if the pack is on top.

Tomkins is a very good young player no doubt, and i really rate the lad. McGuire is also a very good player. They are 2 different types of half backs, i personally think they compliment each other pretty well as Mcguire can do things better than Tomkins can.. he's faster, scores more tries, superb support player, has a great side step. To say Mcguire can't kick and can't organise can't tackle is ridiculous though...

Ah the village idiot is back!!
You do know Mcguire was doing what Tompkins is doing now 5yrs ago don't you???????
I'm not gonna drag it into a Mcguire v Tompkins thing though because i like Tompkins and reckon he could be a great player.
What i will point out is Mcguire has proved season after season how good he is at 6 and not just this support player bollox you keep chelping about!!

Can Tompkins really do all that? He's not shown much of a passing game, or kicking game, or organisational skills to date. He's being way over hyped at this stage. He's got an awesome side step but he's still got a lot to learn and God knows how he will develop. McGuire was better at 20 than Tompkins is at the same stage of his career.

Sorry, who's the "one eyed idiot" ?

I've repeatedly said Tomkins was excellent in the 2nd half.

The point I am making is that blaming Sinfield and McGuire for Tomkins anonymous 1st half is just silly.

I don't think that makes me the one eyed idiot.

Hi Eric, just out of interest who do you rate from the leeds team? and how did they manage to win the last three GF's?

Genuine question.

They only managed to win the last three GF's because of how bottle-less and s[ihit[/ie the opposition was.

If Tomkins and Eastmond play the halves on saturday and we fail to win which Leeds player gets the blame?

Easy, Sinfield for getting in the way

Well said... i'm sure someone will still blame Leeds. I remember not long ago everyone used to blame Senior every time when he played for GB and we lost.. my how we could have done with him at centre last Saturday... which says a lot for the other teams centre's in Superleague (Saints apart).

For many years Sean Long was the favourite pantomime villain, despite clearly being the best half back in the competition.
Having said that he was really w**k most of the time in an international shirt.

Wink??? Not his fault he can only open one eyelid!

Tomkins could easily develop into a cracking player. The potential is there for all to see, and I was impressed that he got back up without chelping after he got ted a couple of times last Saturday. If he can keep the silly niggle out of his game, he should be a regular face as an International.

Danny has nothing to prove, but may well benefit from a rest this weekend, although I would expect him to be sat on the bench desperate to play at least a part in the match.

A repeat of our second half effort should make this weekends a belter!

It's nothing to do with Long being w@nk, Long has been the best we have had for the last 10 years and deserved his GB/England place, so did Farrel, Sculthorpe, Senior, Morley, Peacock etc.

The reason we don't win is because the Aussies & NZ have far better players than us, no coach or no combination of English player can change this.

By all means give Tomkins & Eastmond a go, just like we did with every other new young british hopeful (Remember McGuire & Burrow on the GB academy tour) but I still think they will be far too strong for us.

As Brisbane pointed out nobody in SL could have defended against the left wing attack from Aus in the first half, not Senior and Raynor, not Gleeson & fox, not Atkins & Gardner.

IMO the Aussies are about 25-30% better than us, we will win some games & we may even win a test once if we are lucky but a period of sustained success looks a long way of.

I'm guessing you missed the game at the DW stadium against your boys when his clever inside flick pass created the the kick through and then for Hansen to touch down? Just an example of many. His short kicking game in the last 10 is also superb where it was shown on Saturday in getting a repeat set, he's forced many goal line drop outs this year. He has the complete game IMO along with his defensive work to that even Sheens was frustrated by.

It's not going to happen in a sustained way unless we massively increase the numbers playing the game to something comparable to Australia. That means improving what we do already and spreading the game to new areas.

Nail on the head.

Yep bang on. also schools need to play it more.. it has to start at grass roots for the demand for it to grow in areas outside the heartlands of League.

McGuire also has a very good short kicking game but this barely gets a mention (even on here), even though Leeds have scored a fair few tries from his kicks.

It was interesting to hear Brian Carney on the Sky commentary for the GF point out that McGuire's contribution throughout the game was a major factor in Leeds coming out on top (when everyone else was giving all the superlatives to Sinfield). He wasn't referring to his support play either.

...and cut back on te reliance on overseas players at the skills positions.

And overseas coaches.... or do we need these guys expertese to improve our young players?

i'd also consider switching the amateur game to the summer. I don't think matches this weekend on soggy pitches will help to improve the skillsets of youing kids or older players for that.