Tomkins: How trip to an abattoir sealed my Catalans move
England full-back and new Man of Steel can inspire the French side to a historic win in tonight’s Grand Final
When Sam Tomkins first met Bernard Guasch in 2018, it took place in the less than salubrious surroundings of the Catalans Dragons owner’s slaughterhouse.
Guasch, a successful businessman who made his money selling meat, offered Tomkins a three-year deal and a new life in the south of France away from Wigan Warriors, his hometown club.
The England full-back took it and now, in his third season with Steve Mcnamara’s side, he can emulate what he achieved three times with Wigan, by helping Catalans to Grand Final glory.
Recalling his meeting with Guasch, Tomkins said: “I met Bernard at his abattoir and I didn’t know quite what to expect. If I’d have given him a ‘no’ that day, I might have ended up in the sausages! But he explained where the club was going and what he wanted from it, so it was a pretty easy sell once I knew that.
“He’s the most passionate Catalans Dragons fan you will ever meet, but it just so happens that he owns the club.
“I spoke to Steve too, and knew where he wanted to guide the team, so to then speak to an owner with that drive and commitment, if you can get a balance between those two then there’s no reason why a club can’t be successful.”
Mcnamara, the former England coach, needed victory in the 2017 Million Pound Game to stave off relegation in his first season in charge.
In 2018, though, he guided the Dragons to victory against Warrington in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley, before his side beat Wigan at Barcelona’s
Nou Camp the following season. The crowd of 31,555 broke the Super League record for the biggest attendance outside a
Grand Final, and now a club who first entered the competition in
2006 can claim its greatest prize. The Dragons will be backed by around
1,500 supporters from Catalonia at Old Trafford, and also among the crowd will be England
rugby union head coach Eddie Jones and several of his staff. Many neutrals in the crowd are expected to support Catalans, and Tomkins said: “Winning three Grand Finals at Wigan was special, but this is a chance for Catalans to claim their first Super League title. It would rank right up there with anything I have achieved.”
Tomkins, who is set to be passed fit after a knee injury, has proved a key figure in the Dragons’ dramatic rise and was this week named the 2021 Steve Prescott Man of Steel.
Catalans finished top above a St Helens team who will be seeking to emulate the great Leeds Rhinos side by winning their third successive Super League title to clinch a “three-peat”. The Dragons’ rise has breathed passion and romance into British rugby league and they could be joined in Super League next season by Toulouse Olympique if they beat Featherstone in tomorrow’s promotion decider.
Victory for both sides would cap a glorious renaissance for French rugby league, a sport banned in 1940 by France’s Nazi-supporting Vichy government. Tomkins, a married father of four, lives near to Shaun Edwards, another legendary ex-wigan player and defence coach of the France rugby union side. Tomkins said: “Wigan is like a goldfish bowl, but here the lifestyle is completely different. We have a swimming pool in the garden and my kids love it. I want to stay for a few years after I retire, and at that point I think it will be more difficult to persuade them to come to England because they won’t have known anything else.
“When we go to a park and I hear them talking French to French kids, it’s an amazing feeling.”