RUGBY LEAGUE

WIGAN’S DEACON OF HOPE

TOMKINS: Ready for second season

Wednesday February 3,2010

By Martin Richards

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SAM TOMKINS is sure he will be the main beneficiary of Paul Deacon’s homecoming.

Tomkins remains calm about fears of second-season syndrome after a memorable 2009, when he broke into the Wigan first team, went on to win Super League’s Young-Player-of-the-Year award and rounded things off by facing Australia in the Four Nations final.

Stand-off Tomkins, 20, still remains a work in progress and Deacon, who has finally joined his hometown club after 11 seasons with Bradford Bulls, can provide a crucial guiding hand in his development.

Previous Wigan coaches Andy Goodway and Denis Betts failed to prise former Great Britain scrum-half Deacon, 30, away from the Bulls, but circumstances were right for him to realise a dream of playing for the Cherry and Whites before he retires.

Tomkins said: “The organisational side of my game is something I need to develop a lot more and Deacs has got 10 years on me in that department.

“His experience can benefit everybody , especially me. He has been there and done it for quite a number of years at Bradford. He is like the dad of the group.

“People keep talking about this so-called second-season syndrome but I’m not too worried about that.

“I still pinch myself when I look back on last year. It was a bit of a whirlwind season for me, a lot of things went well. I got lucky at times but I didn’t do anything different.

“The Four Nations was a huge bonus for me. You can’t put a price on that. It was massive just being in that international environment and training with top players. ”

Deacon is Wigan’s only close-season addition but Tomkins feels the squad, under new coach Michael Maguire, is capable of winning silverware for the first time since 2002. “In the last couple of years we’ve just fallen at the semi-final hurdle and that has been tough,” said Tomkins . “We are ready to take the next step now.”

The fixture planners have given Wigan’s opening game a mischievous twist, with Maguire’s predecessor Brian Noble bringing his new charges the Crusaders to the DW Stadium on Friday. ‘He’s been there, done it. He is like the dad of the group’

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