League: Sam Tomkins' guide to...London

Lewis Brown and Martin Taupau take selfie's as they pass Trafalgar Square during the Kiwis open top bus tour of London. Photo/Getty.

For each stop on the Kiwis tour former Warriors fullback Sam Tomkins will provide his insider thoughts on the city and the league culture.

The city

It's a brilliant place. I have to say London is probably my favorite place to hang around in England and I spend as much time there as possible - whenever I have a day off really.

There is a direct train from Wigan to London that only takes two hours so it is quite easy to get to now.

There is such a long list of things to do there. There are all the famous attractions of course, but it is just as much fun to go to Oxford Street and get a coffee, or take a wander down Carnaby Street.

It's an amazing city though; I've been there so many times and there are still things that I haven't seen.

I noticed that people in New Zealand see London as quite a mythical place but the famous landmarks like Big Ben, London Eye, Houses of Parliament - they are all within half an hour of each other.

The Stadium and league culture

The Olympic stadium is new to rugby league and hopefully it is a success. London is such a world famous city and people associate London with England so it would obviously be better if league had a bigger presence there.

League doesn't have much of footing in London, even though the London Broncos have had their moments over the years. But the capital is such a cosmopolitian city
and this is the kind of game that can kick start that.

And in a way I'm glad we are not playing at Wembley, so none of the boys have to think about that last minute defeat in 2013 World Cup. That really hurt and is not something you want to dwell on.

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