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'Surreal' - Tompkins describes prospect of facing former England teammates
England Under-20 World Cup winner Nick Tompkins will run out at Twickenham in the red shirt of Wales on Saturday and admits it is a surreal prospect.
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Six years after helping England’s young guns achieve global glory, he now faces potentially the toughest test of a fledgling senior international career.
Sidcup-born centre Tompkins – he qualifies for Wales via his maternal grandmother, who hailed from Wrexham – will oppose six of his Saracens team-mates in England’s matchday 23 on Saturday.
It will be only the 25-year-old’s fourth Wales appearance, yet he has already shown enough glimpses to suggest new head coach Wayne Pivac might have unearthed a gem.
And the Tompkins family will be out in force as Wales target a first Six Nations away victory over England since 2012.
“Dad has to wear the red jersey or else he can’t come!” Tompkins said.
“They are all coming, yeah. All my friends. Loads of people wanted tickets.
“I think you can get more than two or three (tickets), but then you start having to pay. It starts racking up. I don’t love them that much!
“It does feel surreal (playing against England) and I suppose it’s not going to kick in until I am really there.”
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Saracens colleagues Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje – Tompkins’ England Under-20 captain – Elliot Daly, Jamie George, George Kruis and Ben Earl will all be out to ruin his day.
But Tompkins has now joined an exclusive club of modern-day Saracens international players, even if it might have taken him a little bit longer than some of England’s established names.
“I would say that was one of the hardest things I had to go through,” he added.
“You see all these guys, they make it. The opportunities they’ve had, they’ve taken them.
“You question why you are not getting the opportunities, but I think it clicked later on that there were things I needed to do and I wasn’t doing them.
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“I was probably blaming other people, making up excuses for why I wasn’t doing what I (should have been) doing.
“I started taking control, doing it right. It is tough as a young kid being at a good club with players like Brad (Barritt) and Duncan (Taylor), who are so good.
“You have to be patient, and I realise looking back that everybody has got their own path. I wasn’t ready then. I am ready now, but I don’t know if I would have been ready if I had been thrust in (to Test rugby) at 22 or 23.
“I want to show people why I am here. I want them to see that, ‘yes, he deserves to be here’.”
Tompkins made a try-scoring debut off the bench against Italy last month and although he endured a testing afternoon in defeat to Ireland a week later, he then excelled in Wales’ thrilling encounter with France.
“The standard of rugby is obviously a little bit higher, but the biggest thing for me is the hype around it,” he said.
“The stuff that is not to do with rugby. The pressure, things like that. It’s something that you just learn and get used to.”
And asked if he had felt an extra edge to Wales training this week, a laughing Tompkins joked: “Yeah. There’s a lot of hatred for the English!
“I’m a lover, not a fighter, but you can feel the anticipation, you feel a bit of edge, which is great.”
– Press Association
Comments on RugbyPass
NZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
22 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
22 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
22 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
22 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
22 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
22 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
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