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SAM TOMKINS hopes to bring a new dawn now he is England’s manager.
Do not think the legend is picking the team, that is still the job of coach Shaun Wane.
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Instead, Tomkins is team manager, who normally makes sure everything is all right off the field – hotels are booked, activities are lined up, that everything is in place for players to concentrate on matches.
Now things are different, this team manager will be helping those taking on Samoa, giving position-specific tips, spotting areas to attack the Pacific islanders.
“Sam Tomkins, England manager has a different ring to it,” the Catalans Dragons star said. “It’s something I didn’t expect and something I’d not thought about until Shaun asked me earlier this year.
“It entails the usual things – making sure everything in camp’s sorted and organised, looking after everything off the field – but I’ll be adding a little bit of input on it too.
“I’ve got recent rugby experience, unlike team managers before, so I may do some video and position-specific things with players.
“I’ll work with Jack Welsby at full back, as well as the halves. The luxury of an international team is you’ve all the best players there.
“They don’t need much coaching, it’s ideas and guidance more than anything. If I could give Jack an idea, someone may think something else and I get a knowledge of what they think might work.
“Between us, we’ll work out collectively what’s good for us.
“And that recent rugby knowledge can kick in. Forgetting Samoa, I play against almost all of England’s players, so I know their strengths and weaknesses.
“I’ll add value in that regard, give the coaches a perspective from a player’s point of view. It’s certainly a different role to what a team manager’s done before.”
Tomkins, 35, admits he never saw the approach by Wane coming – but the fire is there.
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Just two years ago, he was part of an England side that suffered an agonising World Cup semi-final defeat in golden point extra time.
Memories of Stephen Crichton’s drop goal sailing through the posts at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium remain fresh. Talk of revenge is not a marketing ploy, it is genuine.
Next Sunday sees job one at Wigan, then on November 2 it is job two in Leeds and the aim is to get both done against a side packed with the world’s top talent.
Samoa skipper Jarome Luai has won the last four NRL Grand Final, while Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Jeremiah Nanai have starred for New Zealand and Australia respectively.
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Tomkins, however, believes England’s 24-man squad – and the moans about those who missed out – shows just how good they are.
And nothing short of a 2-0 victory will do.
Tomkins added: “It was just two years ago when we had the worst loss with England for a very long time. We undersold ourselves on that day.
“We missed a huge opportunity on home soil, that still hurts for people who were involved. It won’t make up for a World Cup semi-final but we’d love to get one over them.
“We met last week to decide the squad and there were some real tough decisions. There wasn’t a bad option, it was good or good.
“The fact some good players have missed out shows we’ve got a very strong side. 2-0 is the goal, we won’t be happy drawing this series.”
