Sam Tomkins: We've stumbled but have potential

The NRL is a tough competition and you need to be at your best every week, and we haven't been able to do that over the last fortnight. Photo / Greg Bowker

Opinion

Star recruit Sam Tomkins has joined the Herald. The England fullback will write a fortnightly column, starting today.

There's no doubt my introduction to the NRL has been tough.

I knew it was going to be like that coming into the season from both a personal and team point of view.

The NRL is a tough competition and you need to be at your best every week, and we haven't been able to do that over the last fortnight.

For some reason, we haven't played to the same structures we have practised during the week.

I'm not happy with my form yet. Nobody is playing their best in round one or two and, like the rest of the team, I have things to work on and I'm going to get better.

Pressure is not an issue. I have been asked about that a million times since I signed with the Warriors but I'm concentrating on doing my job for this group, nothing else.

No amount of external pressure is going to bother me.

We are a very tight group and are going to get better. It's a long season. We haven't started as well as we should have but it's a challenge and I'm someone who enjoys a challenge.

It was one of the reasons I signed with the Warriors.

Everybody wants to be in a team that is evolving and growing.

If you go into a side that's already at the very top, you are jumping into a team that is already very successful. Hopefully I can help make a difference.

By the start of last year, I had decided I wanted to leave Wigan and play in the NRL.

The first thing I needed to do was try to negotiate a way of getting out of my contract with Wigan. That was the tough bit. It was a club I enjoyed playing at but I wanted a change.

Once that was resolved, my agent went out to speak to a few clubs and discovered a few were interested. From there, it was a case of choosing where I thought I was best suited and the Warriors came out on top of that.

There are a lot of similarities between Wigan and the Warriors. They are both family-oriented clubs with masses of talent. The Warriors have bags of potential that hasn't been turned into success.

That was the feeling I had when I first came into the Wigan team.

Some things needed changing and we went from being a semifinal team to the top.

I'm really enjoying living in Auckland and it's been better than I expected, apart from the first couple of results. It's a brilliant place. When I told people I was going to New Zealand, many asked why I wasn't going to Australia. It was usually Aussies with their typical Australia-is-the-best-place-in-the-world attitude.

I have been in situations like this before when we have lost the first two games of the season. It's not ideal but these aren't games that are going to cost us silverware. We are going to get better.