Nick Tompkins emerges from Brad Barritt’s shadow to stake claim for ‘bittersweet’ Premiership final spot

Barritt’s hamstring injury is set to rule him out of the Premiership final against Exeter Chiefs, with Tompkins disheartened for his captain even though it opens the door for him to start he biggest game of his career so far

Nick Tompkins scores one of Saracens' six tries in the victory over Exeter Chiefs (PA)

Hat-trick hero Nick Tompkins admits it will be a bittersweet feeling to run out at Twickenham in next Saturday’s Premiership final against Exeter Chiefs knowing it will be the biggest moment in his career at the expense of his Saracens captain Brad Barritt.

Tompkins replaced Barritt inside the opening half of Saracens’ semi-final victory over Gloucester on Saturday to score a 14-minute second-half hat-trick, securing the club’s path to their eight Premiership final in a repeat of last season’s Twickenham showcase.

The 24-year-old has had to bide his time at Saracens behind Barritt and the likes of Alex Lozowski, Marcelo Bosch and Duncan Taylor, but he looks poised to start at Twickenham should Barritt fail to recover from the hamstring injury that forced him off at the weekend.

“That’s tough,” Tompkins said of Barritt’s misery. “That is a tough loss because of everything Brad brings but he’ll be there with us and this team has shown we can overcome many obstacles with really influential players not being there. They’re always there so we’ll step up, I’ll try and do the job as well.

“He has been unbelievably supportive of me from the start, since when I first came here at 17/18. He is a proper leader and mentor to me. He just said (when I came on), ’play your game, don’t worry, you’ve got this.’ It was really good for me.”

It has not always been so good for Tompkins though. Five years ago, he started the Junior World Championship final victory over South Africa Under 20s, the same match that jettisoned the England captain that day, Maro Itoje, into the mainstream eye and onto greater things with Saracens and the senior national team.

While Itoje is now a genuine contender for Player of the Year in 2019, Tompkins has had to play the waiting game until what director of rugby Mark McCall described on Saturday as a “breakthrough season” in 2018/19.

“It’s really tough because you have got to weigh up, are you doing the right thing, are you good enough, you have all these sort of questions going through your head,” Tompkins added. “You have to look closely at those. But you also have to work hard. You can’t give up. It’s an element of biding my time, of pushing myself, knowing that I can be in this team and contribute. Having that self-belief is one of the hardest things but it is also easy when you have great people around you.

“You look at it, ‘why am I not doing as well as Maro?’ Well, I'm not a freak! And he is unbelievable.

Brad Barritt is likely to miss the Premiership final with a hamstring injury (PA)

“You've got to realise everyone is different, everyone takes their own journey. And that is tough, I would say that takes time and that takes a bit of maturity as well. When you are younger, you are throwing your toys out of the pram, you want to be there straight away. That's one of the great lessons I have learnt at this club – biding my time, but you have got to keep working, because if you stop you go backwards."

For many, having to play second-fiddle to 32-year-old Barritt would be enough to leave the club in search of first-team rugby. Had he done son in the past, you would not have ruled him out of Rugby World Cup selection this summer, such has been his impressive performances particularly in this calendar year.

But that thought process surprisingly did not enter Tompkins’ mind – though that’s easy to say when you’re part of the team that on Saturday will attempt to cement its status as the best team in England, Europe and very possibly the world.

“You say that but it’s just the draw of everything Saracens gives me, it kind of squashes that and kills it straight away,” he explains. “Yes, game time is important and I am holding that as a high standard, but it’s also quality of life and quality of coaching come into it and that comes from a lot of different things. Saracens have been amazing for me, I’ve loved every second of it.”