Shaun Wane has a little Sam Tomkins doll that’s been sitting by his bedside for the last two years and eight months.
Now and again he’ll give Little Sam a pat on the head and whisper reassuring words of World Cup glory. Wane used to have a Joel Tomkins doll too - but that had to go to the charity shop after it misbehaved. Captain Sam has always been the most talismanic of Wane’s charges and he will have been pencilled in to lead his team since the day the 58-year-old took charge back in February 2020.
He played his best rugby league under the gruff tutelage of his Wigan mentor, from snappable sixth-former to fast-twitch untouchable. Some elements of those days have gone. The chippy temperament is still there, even more puckish now as the years slip by. The pace that made fools of many is not.
