Claims there was nothing in it:

[urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/14695413.stm[/url

I've always thought you speak a lot of sense and represent the good side of Warrington fans, and I agree it wouldn't suprise me if Roby wins MOS he has the respect of fans and player a like.

Cheerio then.

Pathetic over-reaction.

He would do though wouldn't it. What does he claim he was doing then?

This. Yed, stop being an astute and reasonable poster. It makes it difficult to tar all Wire fans with the same brush!

Bye bye Sam enjoy Union, topics like this WILL make him switch. Ain't Britsh society totally screwed that the majority look up and admire freaks on reality shows yet belittle obviously talented sports people like Sam. Scrubbers

What about when we played Wire at Wire in 2010, Mathers and Myler both give the fingers to us fans, what happens, nothing, shut up.

I remember Graham giving us the w@nker sign at Knowsley Road a few years ago, who gives a toss seriously.

Storm in a tea cup, doesn't warrant an apology as what happens when opposition fans sing 'Sam is a w@nker' etc are they going to apologise if it gets picked up on Sky, what bout when certain teams score and it shows the crowd giving the sticks after they have scored?

So what Sam gave the sticks to the Leeds fans, they deserve it for booing him whilst representing England, anyone with half a brain wouldn't take offence as I would just class it as banter.

Sam not getting MOS for giving the Leeds fans the fingers ha ha ha pi55 off, in your dreams.

I remember Millward doing it too, caught on the big screen. No action. No need for it from Sam as he's better than that, but massive overreaction!

Can't be d reading all 14 pages..

FFS Leeds fans deserved it IMO, Sam has had to field embarrassing question because of them muppets and sticking the V's is nothing and those who feel offended need to get themselves a life.

Welcome to Britain... the nation of do-gooders!!

LEGEND.

No he should be fined, all players should be fined for this.

Just because the fans do it doesn't mean the professionals you are paying to see should react.

It's like working in customer services, just because the customer is blasting you over the phone doesn't mean you can justify giving it back, you are the professional so you act professionally.


Mather/Myler/King(to his own fans) any other player should be fined, it's not acceptable end of.

He has brought the company, in this case Wigan Warriors in to a negative light, which must mean there is some way he is brought in to line, forget me or my Wire ties the BBC received a number of complaints from neutral viewers he has to be shown it isn't acceptable.
A fine though is ample punishment, a ban is just ridiculous and grossly disproportionate.

I think a public apology would also be a good idea.

I wonder if the RFL will do anything about him grabbing the ref's arm? That's a 3 to 8 match ban according to the RFL's own rules.

So Sam Tomkins, who has just won the Super League and Challenge Cup, at the biggest club in rugby league, his hometown team, will decide that topics on the internet slagging him off will make him decide that Wigan RL means f all, and he wants to go to play union.

Sam was wrong in what he did and I probably over reacted in saying he deserves a ban.

I now agree with Yed in saying it should be dealt with by Wigan and give him a fine and be done with it.

The kid is an immense talent and should be appreciated by all RL fans,it's players like him that can hopefully bring the 4 Nations and the WC back to England.

Is there a precedent for this sort of thing? If so, follow it - the occasion and fact it was televised are completely irrelevant. We can't punish players based solely on who might have been watching. If there's an offence been committed then so be it, but we can't be entertaining thoughts of how many people may have seen it when considering potential RFL sanctions.

Is spot on.





Typical knee jerk reactions by too many people yesterday. Anyone would think he had run over to the video ref and clocked him one instead of waving a couple of fingers around.

many a player have reacted in the same manner for us Briers at leeds, King did the five knuckle shuffle jesture at our own fans,eastmond( alleged ) at his own fans, a lot of fans have blown it a bit out of proportion imo because the player who has done it,i don't particulaly like Tomkins he can be petulant at the best of times i think a ban would be a tad harsh

This needs to stop. Lets just face the facts. Worse things have happened in the past and will in the future. But to my memory this is the first thats happened in a Challenge cup final in front of millions of viewers. Bringing the game into disrepute should be the charge. A large fine and a lenghty ban is in order. But please leave him alone until after the Wire game, I would much prefer to play A Wigan side with no suspensions and a fit squad. No excuses for either team on the result

Got to agree with this. Bit silly, but we are talking about young men who are in a very fired up state. Sam will be defended here, as i'm sure lee Smith was on the Leeds board, when he acted far more aggresively towards fans. Smiths behaviour was far worse.

Ironically i was travelling down with my 15 year old grandson on friday and we were talking about Churchill and his "V" sign, and the subject of the offensive version came up. To people his age it is almost an irrelevance and carries little of the power it did 40 or 50 years ago.

It's also ironic that Leeds fans, of all people, come on here to tell us how our players should behave on the pitch...... Ironic, and hypocritical.

I would also add that if it had been anybody other than Sam, nobody would have bothered to post.... Get a grip people, and get over your one-eyed bias...

Not read all 15 pages of posts on the subject, but i feel he should get fined and be given a one match ban. I feel he has shown tremendous restraint until now and if it had been me i would have reacted to all the stick he has had well before now, but he is a professional and whether he likes it or not, he is an ambassador for the sport and the club. He should be fined and banned for a game.

Where have all these sanctimonious paragons of virtue suddenly sprung from as they knit under the guillotine? As a professional sportsman he should not have done it and ought to have known better and it was probably a heat of the moment thing on a day charged with high emotion for all and certainly not something to make such a fuss about. I don't like to see players spitting and emptying the contents of their nostrils all over the pitch - should the RFL investigate them as well? I don't condone what he did but there are a lot of worse things happening in the world today without fans getting touchy about a gesture that is made a million times a day by every tom dick and harry. Sam needs to be chastised about it for being un-gentlemanly behaviour but that is all, talk of a ban by anyone is just ridiculous.

Really? Personally, I've already admitted the fact that Ryan Bailey is disliked because he's cocky and arrogant. I don't defend him for this, but Bailey himself appreciates that he is not universally liked to say the least. Tomkins seems to have no idea why he's disliked

. I'm sure there's one or two others that the same can be said for in the Leeds team. What I don't understand is that Wigan fans can't accept that the same applies to Tomkins and continue to defend him. I wouldn't defend Bailey if he did the same, I'd criticise him, and deservedly so.

We are incidentally, talking about the same group of fans that got so irate when Mark Calderwood threw a ball into the crowd at the JJB stadium years ago when playing for Leeds

, so let's not pretend everyone else is overreacting and the Wigan fans are offering some sort of balanced viewpoint on the matter.

sam is awsome, its a F*** u to all the so called rugby fans booing him
i love him for it,
get lost all the haters!
its great, stands up and p***** all over the rest of the fans and teams!
if u lot cant hack it, then stop booing him
you give him he will give it u back, well done sam!

Other than the fact that he's supremely talented and plays for the wrong team, neither do I.