Monday 13 October 2014 19:23, UK
England winger Sam Tomkins has pleaded for people to look beyond Ben Flower’s punch and see the Super League Grand Final as a great advert for rugby league.
St Helens lifted the Super League trophy in front of a 70,000-plus crowd at Old Trafford, but the result was overshadowed by a second-minute red card for Wigan Warriors prop Flower.
After taking an elbow to the face from Lance Hohaia, Flower retaliated by knocking his opponent to the floor before landing a second punch to the Saints player’s face while he laid on the ground.
However, Flower’s former team-mate Tomkins – now plying his trade with New Zealand Warriors in the NRL – insists the 26-year-old Wales international is not a bad character.
“It was a bad couple of punches,” he reflected on Sky Sports News HQ. “Ben is by no means a bad person on or off the field.
“In the heat of the occasion and given how fired up he was he has retaliated to being elbowed in the face.
“Ben has already put his hand up and apologised, he will have to live with that for a long time now but he has some good people around him and I’m sure he will be alright.”
“I spoke to him after the game and he was obviously gutted, letting down so many people.
It’s not good; the Grand Final is such a great occasion. It’s such a great advert for rugby league and it’s a shame that has now deflected onto what happened with Ben [Flower].
“He’s a strong character and I’m sure he will come back from this, he’s going to cop a lot of stick for quite a while, but hopefully he will come back and play some really good rugby.
“Things like this happen, he was playing in a Grand Final with 70,000 people watching, you’re never going to be more pumped than that.”
Although disappointed to see the sport hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons, Tomkins hopes people can see beyond the controversy and come to admire rugby league.
“It’s not good; the Grand Final is such a great occasion,” he insisted. “It’s such a great advert for rugby league and it’s a shame that has now deflected onto what happened with Ben.
“Hopefully people can look beyond that and see what a great day it was and a great win for St Helens.”
Saturday’s Grand Final brought the domestic season to a climax and attention now turns to international matters, with England heading to the southern hemisphere for a Four Nations competition with Samoa, Australia and New Zealand.
England’s last outing was a reverse at the hands of the Kiwis in the Rugby League World Cup semi-final, something Tomkins is eager to avenge.
“I’d say we’re over it, but I wouldn’t say I haven’t thought about it,” he admitted. “We were probably the better team on that day and to be the better team on the day and lose it’s a hard one to swallow.
“We can take good lesson from that, though. The way we competed throughout, it was a couple of silly errors that cost us a place in the World Cup final.
“We will remember the pain we felt at full-time, we don’t want the dressing to experience that again so when we head out to Australia tomorrow we will be determined to bring silverware back.”
Tomkins has enjoyed the start to life in New Zealand with the Warriors and hopes his inside knowledge can aid England in the Four Nations.
“It’s going OK,” he said of his time with the NRL club. “We didn’t quite make the playoffs, we missed out on points difference and that was pretty disappointing.
“I’ve enjoyed my first year, it’s been a good challenge – the NRL is a good competition but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
“I think we will do well, the squad we’ve got together is an exciting one. We’ve got real young talented people coming into the squad, it’s a really exciting time.”
