Early Life
Tomkins was born on 23 March 1989 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Following the birth of Sam's older brother Joel in Warrington, the family had moved to Milton Keynes due to his father's work as a police officer. In the early 1990s, his family moved to Chorley, where his younger brother Logan was born. Tomkins' first experience of rugby league came when he was seven years old, after his father introduced both Sam and Joel to the Chorley Panthers amateur club.
By the time Tomkins was nine, both he and his older brother had moved from the Panthers and were becoming more involved with the amateur Wigan St. Patrick's club, a feeder team for the professional Wigan club. To aid their careers, the family decided to move from Chorley to Wigan, and Tomkins remained playing at the club until his mid-teens. Reflecting on Tomkins' time at Wigan St. Patrick's, Bill Atherton, the club's chairman, remarked that "you could see there was something special when Sam came up through the club. There has always been something different about him." When he was aged twelve, he obtained a place on the Wigan Warriors scholarship scheme, and when he turned sixteen, Tomkins was offered a part-time contract for the club's academy. By 2007, Tomkins was featuring regularly for the Wigan academy sides. That year, he featured in an under-18s win for the England Academy against France Cadets; his early try helped establish an early England lead before he completed his brace in the second half after a sin-binning for a high tackle. At the end of the year, Wigan rewarded Tomkins with a full-time contract, giving him the opportunity to train alongside players in the club's first team.
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