Sam Tomkins details tough beginnings at Wigan Warriors under Shaun Wane in ground-breaking documentary

Tomkins: The Last Chance premieres next Wednesday, February 28, at The Edge which will be followed by a Q&A experience with some of the game’s biggest names including George Williams, Tommy Makinson and Josh Charnley, as well as ex-Wigan head coach and current England boss Wane.

​Tomkins allowed filmmakers total access into his life on and off the field during his final few weeks as a Super League star in France, as well as a reflection on his illustrious career in cherry & white.

The ex-Wigan No.1 won three Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups and two League Leaders’ Shields during his time at the DW Stadium - one of the greats of the modern era.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the now 34-year-old.

“When I came into the Wigan system, Shaun was the coach and he had really high standards of what he expected,” Tomkins, who was twice crowned Man of Steel, explained.

“I wasn’t quite there.

“Me and Shaun are good friends now and we’ve had a lot of good times, but it certainly didn’t start like that.

“The first 12 months in the academy, I rarely got picked.

"I was knocking on his office door every week asking why and he’d give me plenty of reasons, and I wouldn’t have picked myself either.

“But I needed to know and I had to work really hard until he picked me.”

Wane, renowned for coaching toughness into his teams, made Tomkins prove his worth as a youngster, with the now-retired full-back explaining how he was made to tackle forwards on his own in the academy ranks.

“Shaun got one of the big lads that was a bit older than me and the test was if I could stand on the try-line, and he’d run from 10 metres, if I could stop him, then I could play,” Tomkins said.

“I couldn’t stop him now, so I had no chance when I was 16!

“That was the test in which I failed many times but eventually I did enough in other areas to prove that I was good enough to play.

“Wigan is a club with really high standards and I learned that from day one.

“There was a group of us that came through when Shaun was coaching and we all learned lessons from those tough times.

"You probably wouldn’t get that sort of training now.

“As players, we had to buy into it.

"If you didn’t, then you wouldn’t be in the team.

“A lot of players over a three or four year period of Shaun being coach came through with those hard work morals set into them and they continued that, whether it was at Wigan or another club.

“He certainly had a big impact on us all.”

Tickets are still available online at https://www.quaytickets.com/theedge/ from £25 for next week’s viewing at the exclusive event, a night not to miss and the only place to see the documentary.