Sam Tomkins has had the career that many Rugby League players could only dream of. The fullback is known as a legend of the game, now he will don the jersey of the Catalan Dragons one last time as he looks to bow out from the game on the biggest stage of all, the Super League Grand Final.
Things haven’t always been straight forward for Tomkins though, as prior to the 2023 Super League season, the England international was told to retire by four or five different specialists.
Tomkins described his knee as “shot” before the start of the Rugby League World Cup in 2022 but he said, “I didn’t want to get it checked out as I had an amazing chance to captain my country in a home World Cup”.
“Just before the World Cup I came and got some stuff done with my knee, straight after it I saw four different specialists and they all gave me the same diagnosis, to retire straight away.”
Tomkins underwent an operation to try and push him through a final year with the Catalan Dragons, but he knew into his first game of the season that something wasn’t right.
“I had a sleepless night after that first game, early hours of the morning I phoned the Coach (Steve McNamara) and told him I couldn’t do it.”
“In terms on my Rugby career, that was the toughest conversation I’ve ever had. Steve (McNamara) called me into the office to talk through it. I was adamant at the time, I know my body and I knew I couldn’t do it,” said Tomkins.
Tomkins said he went and spoke to the Owner and the CEO and told them they were better off bringing in someone else who could play every week, and to take his salary off the cap, and get in a good player who can produce 80 minutes every week.
“The club, quite surprising to me, said they didn’t want to do that, and that they’d rather have me for important games than bring someone else in, which for me was very humbling”.
He and the medical staff at the club sat down together and worked their way through the fixtures to produce a plan of how the 34-year-old would make it through the season.
“We marked out what we thought would be the most important games of the season and said let’s work out a way you can play these, and that was only eight or nine games.”
Now this weekend, he will feature in what will be his 22nd game of the season, and his final one of his glistening career.
The Catalan Dragons will come up against his former side Wigan Warriors, a club at which he made 213 appearances for, and Tomkins said himself that he “couldn’t have written an ending like this.”
“I’ve got a lot of friends at the club still, a club that means a lot to me, but on Saturday I just want to win, they’ll be no time for looking over at friends, I’m a Catalan Dragon and have been for five years now.”
Tomkins admitted he only intended to spend only two or three years in the South of France, but he and his family have taken the place to their hearts, that therefore now after retirement, he plans to stay in Perpignan.
After being in France now for five years, Tomkins knows how much a Grand Final win will mean for the French club after only being formed 17 years ago. “As a club we can spark a light in a lot of young French kids for Rugby League, to see us win a super league is a moment that would be a huge boost for the kids in France,” he said.
Having won everything there is to win domestically, Tomkins will be looking to add a fourth Grand Final winners medal, winning the previous three with the Wigan Warriors, but he said, “This one will mean the most, because it’s my last game, as athletes you do it to win, and I want my last ever memories of lacing up my boots with a win.”
