Sam Tomkins on if he’ll play in 2025 and ‘unacceptable’ Catalans Dragons

Sam Tomkins has claimed that Catalans Dragons missing the play-offs is “unacceptable” with the former England captain also commenting on his playing future.

Whilst Catalans haven’t mathematically seen their play-off hopes end just yet, they would need a Rugby League record win of 181 points or more and even though Hull FC have struggled in 2024, they’re not that bad.

Last night’s victory for Leigh Leopards saw Catalans’ fate confirmed and Sam Tomkins was on hand to give his thoughts with the 35-year-old working as a pundit on Sky Sports. In his capacity as a pundit, he weighed in a controversial Leigh yellow card but as a Catalans player, he was clearly incredibly downbeat.

Initially quite solemn and explaining that they “can’t be depending on teams to lose”, Tomkins would then declare the 2024 campaign as “unacceptable”

“It’s unacceptable for a club that has the resources that we have”, he explained.

“We should be firmly in the six. We’ve been a top-four side for the last four seasons and the goal this year was to go and get back to another Grand Final.”

Could Sam Tomkins play on in 2025?

Sam Tomkins’ brutal assessment of his team’s 2024 continued as he argued: “We’ve been way off if we’re honest. We’re probably sitting in seventh or eighth position, whatever we’re going to finish in and it is probably a fair reflection.

“Certainly in the second half of the season, we’ve simply not been good enough. There’s no illusion, we know that as players. It’s a player issue at the moment. We’ve not played well enough week in, week out and we don’t deserve to go to a Grand Final.”

Catalans seeing their season end in today’s dead rubber against Hull FC is certainly not how the club or Sam Tomkins envisioned and that now begs the question, will Sam Tomkins retire again?

“I’ve no idea is the honest answer,” was Tomkins’ response when quizzed by presenter Brian Carney.

He would then admit: “I spoke to the owner and I just said ‘Let’s have a talk at the end of the season’ but I didn’t think the end of the season would be tomorrow, so yeah, I’ll look at my future but I’ve had the big retirement speech and all that before, so I don’t know if I’m going to play again.

“I think it’s irrelevant whether I finish now or not, I’ve had the retirement,” he conceded, making reference to his 2023 retirement.

In a final bid for clarity, Carney asked for a percentage chance of whether Sam Tomkins would play in 2025, to which the former England captain bluntly responded: “50/50.”

He’ll be part of a Catalans side playing for pride today against Hull FC at the MKM Stadium with the Black and Whites needing to avoid defeat by 54 points or more to ensure they don’t finish bottom of Super League.