Sam Tomkins admits returning to Wigan after NRL stint “probably wasn’t the best thing”

Sam Tomkins has revealed that his return from the NRL to play for Wigan ‘wasn’t necessarily the right decision’.

In a podcast with Jim Hamilton, a former Scotland rugby union international, Tomkins reveals the reasons behind his move away and what ultimately motivated him to return.

“I started at Wigan, played at Wigan and that’s where I was brought up. But I got this real strong feeling that I wanted to go and do something different.

“So that was when I was 23 and I moved out to New Zealand to play for the New Zealand Warriors for two years.”

Ultimately it was when his wife fell pregnant towards the end of his second year with the club that they took the decision to return to England.

“We wanted to be around my brothers who have also got young kids. But we loved living away, we loved living abroad and living in a completely different culture to what we were used to,” the Wigan native revealed.

Despite the good intentions and the family ties that caused Tomkins and his wife to return home he expresses regret over the move.

Tomkins explains: “I decided to sign back at Wigan which in hindsight probably wasn’t the best thing to do because it wasn’t long after coming back to Wigan that it felt like I was stuck back in the same position.

“It wasn’t in terms of rugby, the rugby was good we went on and won another competition. We won the title but in terms of everything away from rugby we didn’t really enjoy living back in the area, we wanted that feeling again of doing something different.”

That desire for something different saw Tomkins head to Perpignan where he has played for Catalans Dragons the past three years – becoming a fan’s favourite and winning another Man of Steel award in the process.