What is it with the GMR/Merseyside area and the victim mentality?

Nobody is after Tomkins, he has done something quite petulant that made him and by extension the game, look silly. He will be punished for that, 1 match ban and a fine of £500 sounds about right to me.

It doesn't even need a ban. Just a statement from Wigan saying he's been punished and a warning and fine from the RFL.

What Wigan as a club cannot do is just ignore it.

I don't know I'm not from that area.

A slap on the wrist at most it was nothing and should have been forgotten about by now but some folk just can't let it go.

You really are making yourself look silly mate. It is not acceptable for professional sportsmen to make abusive gestures to the crowd or otherwise abuse them at any time in any sport. Simples. If they can't stand the heat they need to get out of the kitchen.

I'm finding it's those making a big fuss about a nothing incident who are making themselves look silly but there you go. Had it not been on tv and not been Tomkins nothing would have been made of it at all as these things are fairly common but rarely get reported.

It was in the first 5 minutes of the game, so it was nothing to do with getting the last laugh so early on. The crowd got to him and he should be punished for reacting.

What about the people in the crowd that haven't said anything to him? Why should they expect a player on the pitch to stick the Vs up at them and further antagonise the people around them and possibly even themselves? they haven't done anything wrong, so why should they suffer? That's the difference there. Tomkins is making enemies, and the RFL (probably for his own sake) need to punish him to stop it happening again.

As for the latter part, that is what I am saying. He chose to abuse a section of the crowd. There WILL have been people in that section of the crowd that said and did nothing to antagonise him. Then there is the fact that it was right in front of a camera on national television. There are people that won't have even known who he was wondering "who's this little git think he is then?"

Later on in this thread, you have said that they have every right to complain. If it wasn't that big a deal, no-one would have a right to complain. Clearly the reaction from his actions show that it has upset some people that our brightest star in the game has flipped the Vs at the people that pay to support this game of ours.

If it was a nothing incident, people wouldn't be making a fuss.

And just because others go unpunished, doesn't mean this should. Again, it seems some people think two wrongs make a right. The fact that this has highlighted something (because of the stage it was on) means that a precedent needs to be set to stop it happening again, not that it should be ignored because all the other ones that haven't been reported were.

Because that is his chosen profession and it comes with the territory if he doesn't like it no one is holding a gun to his head.But unfortunatly for you and him it was and anything else you have said in this post is just flim flam.
The TV moment just happened to be during one of the games 2 biggest games of the season on free to air TV thus making him look a scrotum and the game look foolish.

If this is going to set a precedent then fair enough but I just don't think it will because in general these things go unpunished or unreported because people do not deem them to be that serious.

If it goes unreported, then people in power can't do anything about it.
If the precedent is set, then any future reported incidents would have to be punished as the Tomkins incident will be what is referred back to.

SAM TOMKINS IS AN IDIOT.to put 2 fingers up at other fans is disgracefull.he says on sky sport text he didnt know what he was doing .what aload of crap.wigan fans will defend him cause they think there better than any one else.should get more than 2 match ban .the ruby league should make an example of him .ruby league is suppose to be a family game .what does seeing a player do that to other fans say to our young fans. lets hope the r f l do some think about it

Things happen in the heat of a game which can be outside the players control, it happens and most players acknowledge the fact and make some sort of apology. I have not seen anything from Sam that would go even close to feeling sorry and that counts against him. He could have issued an apology post match and the Wigan club could have backed that up and handed him a fine and that could well have been the end of it.

The sport has a clear duty to maintain the high level of discipline we have within the game, the fact he has shown no remorse at all is reason on its won to impose a sanction. Wayne Rooney got two matches for swearing the same expletive on Sky I expect the same for Mr Tomkins he has to learn he is not above the rules or common decency.

Booing players for the sake of it is wrong, but a player has no right to have a go back on the field of play he has to be above that.

Im a saints fan, I was sat with the Leeds fans right where the V was directed at.
I thought it was amusing.
I think you lot are getting a bit carried away don't you think??

Fair enough, if it was Graham Wigan fans would be calling for bans etc etc...

so what..
Get over it.

There's a certain amount of predictable overreaction going on, but denying that it's an issue at all or claiming that it's perfectly acceptable is just as daft if not more so.

As for your last point, it WAS on TV and whether it was Tomkins or not that alone would make it an issue that needed to be addressed. Not much point in speculating about what might or might not have happened under completely different circumstances.

All it takes is one drunk or idiot in the crowd to take exception and decide to retaliate physically and you have a major incident. Just one. That's why most sports come down on this kind of thing like a ton of bricks.

Yup.

All Sam is doing with this childish behaviour is painting a big target on his back. What will happen next time he plays for England? He'll be booed. If he was shocked last time he needn't be this time.

The worrying thing is that he is showing that he is affected by the abuse and cannot handle it. What happens when that happens in a pub? Or when a gang of lads is giving him stick when he's out on his own for example? Do we get another 'rugby league star in assault trial' case and have another star dragged through the courts?

Wigan need to get a grip of him and his behaviour before they are mopping up the mess. I just don't understand why the approach of both Tomkins and Wigan is covering their ears and smugly ignoring it? If he came out and apologised, the club fines him and it's all forgotten by the play offs.

As mentioned numerous times it's not the most serious incident in the world, but if left things like this have a habbit of festering in the background until something pops.

Calm down he's only stuck two fingers up at so cave dwellers.

They haven't ignored it, they're not covering their ears and they have disciplined him and made a statement.

[url=http://www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.aspx?id=6389&type=1Unacceptable Gesture By Sam Tomkins[/url

Now can we all move on?

Aaah the so cave dwellers.

That's good. I believe we are to hear from the RFL at some point though. But it has been sorted internally and Tomkins has apologised and been fined so at least something's been done.

He's been fined by the club and the RFL match review panel are going to review it. www.dropgoalrl.co.uk/sam-tomkins ... sture.html

He's been fined by the club and the RFL match review panel are going to review it. www.dropgoalrl.co.uk/sam-tomkins ... sture.html

He's been fined by the club? Have they taken his dolly mixture off him this week?

He was sucking on victory vee lozenges last week.

Yup. Seems Mr Leneghan listens to my posts on here as much as the rest of them. Good on him. A good statement all round from Wigan.

Just need to keep this thread going a little longer until the RFL have made their decision however

Good to see Tomkins owning up and apologising. His reaction when first quizzed about it was to pretend he didn't know what the interviewer was talking about.

It'll be interesting to see if the RFL add to the punishment from Wigan or just endorse it with a further statement of censure.