It’s been confirmed that Sam Tomkins will leave Catalans Dragons with his brother, and current head coach, confirming his future plans.
Joel Tomkins was unveiled as the club’s new head coach at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon with Bernard Guasch introducing the Englishman, before he also fielded questions.
The 38-year-old outlined his plans for the club going forward, promising a new outlook on recruitment and maintaining that winning a Grand Final was still the goal, despite ailing results.
His record of just one win in eight games was addressed with French media asking Tomkins if he was ‘surprised’ at being handed the job, given such a record, something he sternly answered before explaining why Guasch had put faith in him.
“Bernard can see what I’m doing with the team, the last eight weeks have been difficult,” Tomkins explained, before confirming that there will be wholesale changes to the squad.
One of those is the fact that younger brother Sam Tomkins will retire, as expected, but he won’t remain part of the Catalans’ set-up with the Dragons new head coach confirming what the future holds for the two time Man of Steel winner.
Why Sam Tomkins won’t be at Catalans Dragons in 2026
Tomkins confirmed that no appointments have been made for his assistants, though he did explain that Ryan Sheridan will remain in his role. Many expected Sam to have a role, but that’s been quashed.
“Sam’s made it quite clear that he’ll retire at the end of the season and he’s got a role in the media moving forward,” Joel explained.
“For Sam, I think he’s quite clear he wants to move forward working in the media whether that’s on Sky or whoever the broadcaster is.”
We’ve already seen Sam Tomkins work on Sky Sports, at times this year but also during the time in which he was retired. Whilst working in the media, he earned rave reviews so it’s no surprise to see him wish to continue that work.
His brother explained: “He’s pretty clear that he’s a supporter of the Dragons, Sam and his family love living in Perpignan, they’ll continue to live in Perpignan, but he’s got a clear motivation that he wants to move into a media role in the years to come.”
Whilst his return to Sky Sports hasn’t been officially confirmed, Joel Tomkins did speak to Sky’s Jenna Brooks about it on The Verdict with Brooks stating: “We are very happy to have him as part of the Sky team,” in what is effectively unofficial confirmation of his return.
Sam Tomkins also has a role within the England set-up as well as ‘Team Manager’, something which will be more important in the coming months and throughout next year ahead of the World Cup in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
