England captain Sam Tomkins relishes the rising standards of competition in Super League

Recruitment seems to have happened incredibly early for the 2023 Super League campaign with the last hugely notable move being the loss of Wigan Warriors’ star John Bateman, who left for the NRL.

Despite this plenty of talent has been added to the competition, something that England captain Sam Tomkins has revealed only makes player’s develop quicker.

In terms of those additions to Super League rosters much of the business was done before the World Cup and with most squad numbers, barring Catalans and Castleford, having been announced it’s easy to assume that the dealing has been done and the cards dealt with squads close to completion.

One of those sides without squad numbers though is Tomkins’ Catalans, who have also recruited on a fairly limited scale whilst losing plenty however star player Tomkins believes the squad is improved, as revealed in an interview with Betfred on their Youtube channel.

“We’ve got a lot of talent, last year I think we undersold ourselves a little bit. There’s been some changes and some out and some in but I think the squad that we’ve got is capable of doing some good things this year.”

The Dragons have seen trio Gil Dudson, Josh Drinkwater and Sam Kasiano depart to Warrington Wolves, Samisoni Langi is another who has left for Super League rivals as he joins Wakefield.

Six others have left Perpignan whilst the recruitment has been limited to Sydney Roosters duo Siosiua Taukeiaho and Adam Keighran, Tom Johnstone from Trinity, Manu Ma’u from Hull FC and former Catalans player Romain Navarrete has returned.

Tomkins was also open about the level of competition in the league and claimed it was only a positive, despite the fact that so many teams will be fighting for just a handful of playoff spots.

“The more teams in the league that are capable of being right at the top is better for everyone, better for the competition. You become a better team and a better player so we want the standard to raise in Super League year on year.”