Wigan's Sam Tomkins targets World Cup spot

Tomkins was England's first-choice full-back from 2010-14 but sat out the last two major international series because of injury and was dropped from coach Wayne Bennett's latest elite training squad after missing the first four months of the 2017 season.

However, 28-year-old Tomkins remains undaunted by his spell in the international wilderness and says he has been encouraged by Bennett to keep his hopes alive of making a return for the Australia-based tournament which is still three months away.

"I love playing for England and I want to do it plenty more times yet," said Tomkins. "I want to try and do everything I can to try and get on that plane.

"I spoke to the coach and he said 'you hadn't played any games when the squad was being reassessed so I'm not putting you in for now but it doesn't have a bearing on who's going to play in the World Cup. That's months away'. So it doesn't bother me.

"I know it's down to me to get in that squad."

Tomkins is facing some fierce competition for the number one jersey, with Zak Hardaker (Castleford) and Jonny Lomax (St Helens) having taken over the role in his two-year absence while Stefan Ratchford (Warrington) got the job against Samoa in May and Jamie Shaul (Hull) has his admirers.

"There's a lot of competition and that's great for the national side," Tomkins said. "Wayne Bennett is a great coach and you want to give someone of his coaching ability as many options as possible.

"I don't think the spine has been so competitive for a long time in an England side. From your half-backs, to your nine and your one, I think there's a number of people who can play those positions."

Tomkins plays his sixth game since recovering from foot surgery when second-placed Leeds visit the DW Stadium in the final round of the regular season on Friday night and he believes he is gradually getting back to his best.

"I'm feeling good," he said. "The body is getting better and I'm feeling more comfortable playing week in, week out.

"I'm just looking to find some consistency at the back end of the year."

Tomkins experienced defeat for the first time since his comeback when the reigning champions suffered a surprise 16-10 home defeat by Warrington last Friday and knows they can ill afford any more slip-ups if they are to keep alive their semi-final hopes.

"We have to take a lot of lessons from Friday," he said. "We were disappointed to lose that one.

"Obviously we'd like to be a bit higher up than we are now but, once we're playing some of those teams above us and hopefully get in some good form, we might just scrape in (the top four)."

Leeds, who are guaranteed to enter the Super 8s in second place, will be without 13 senior players through injury and could give debuts to a trio of youngsters.

Elsewhere on Friday night, third-placed Salford and fifth-placed Hull will be aiming to step up their flagging semi-final hopes when they complete the regular season.

The Red Devils, who have won just one of their last six league games, will expect to get back on track against bottom club Leigh at the Sports Village while Hull seek to end a run of three successive defeats when they take on Huddersfield at the KCOM Stadium.