Shaun Wane: ‘Sam Tomkins just wants to play well for Wigan’

Sam Tomkins wants to focus on playing well for Wigan and is not worried about gaining an England call-up, according to Wigan coach Shaun Wane.

England coach Wayne Bennett named his latest 21-man Elite Performance Squad last week, with the likes of Jonny Lomax and Stefan Ratchford getting the nod over Tomkins for the full-back role.

Tomkins missed out on making the England team for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup last autumn but has had a brilliant start to the Betfred Super League season with Wigan after completing a full pre-season.

And Wane revealed that the former man of steel is just concentrating on what he does with the Warriors rather than worrying about England.

He said: “He was motivated in pre-season and with the latest (England) squad, I’m not sure that he is expecting it now.

“He just wants to get on and play well for Wigan.

“He seems to have fallen out of favour with people there, I don’t think he’s stressed about it, he just wants to perform for Wigan now which is great for me.”

Wane has made a number of positional changes so far this year, putting Morgan Escaré in at full-back and Tomkins at half-back and vice-versa.

And the Warriors boss wants France star Escaré to mould into a permanent half-back role.

Wane added: “I want Morgan to go into the halves but I need more from him.

“I want to leave Sam at full-back for a bit but I need to work hard with Morgan.

“Me and the staff need to work hard on when he is needed (to come off the bench) and just be a bit smarter.”

Joel Tomkins will be available to return for Wigan in Saturday’s clash with Castleford Tigers while Wane could be tempted to give the injured Dan Sarginson another week to recover.