Gareth Thomas = Rich Man's Dwain Chambers.

Let's see how many first team games he plays before he's 1 - exposed, 2 - dropped and 3 - gone.

Im sure hes shaking in his boots to be up against players of the calibre of Ade Gardner, Amos Roberts, Dave Halley etc etc

35 year old union centre/wing signs for expected bottom side, even if it gets the big headlines im not having its good for rugby league.

The way Roberts has played so far this season he'd have every right to be shi*ting himself!

Player of the superleague season so far.

I suppose as a PR stunt it raises the profile of League (especially in Wales). But the notion that a 35-YO crock, with no League history - can compete - consistently - at first team level is completely unhinged and implicitly devalues the sport.

Essentially how I see it. If it will get people talking about League like Dwayne Chambers did in 2007, ding dang do, get the contracts signed. Particularly in Wales, if they can then turn that into regular punters, then for League as a whole will be a winner.

Henson is half the player Thomas was yet he'd be a bigger signing imo. To be fair he [Henson] wouldn't stand out and even if Thomas was 6 years younger he'd struggle.

Look at Inga the Winger at the pies for example, it took him almost a whole season to come to terms with the game and his fitness levels were shocking in comparison to all the other League players.

Do these guys that think that they can just waltz into League realise the how much more physical and energetic this game is compared to union.

I would like him to do well and to fail in equal measure.
To do well to raise the profile of the Crusaders and the Welsh game in general.
To fail because if a 35 year old, 'over the hill' UNION player can just walk into the game it eliminates the notion of superior fitness and skill levels.

Union has moved on massively since the days they used to hide behind amateurism. Union these days is played by some giants and some superb athletes. Some of the French backs in particular would 'pwn' Super League outside backs.

but there is still no real pace to the game and the extra 4 men on the pitch make it easier to 'hide', you can't tell me that Union players (even with professionalism and better coaching) can compete on fitness terms with league players ?

The sooner we stop hiding behind these stereotypes, the quicker we can see the problems in our own game

enlighten me

They would take time to adapt because it's a different discipline. I remember a program where they got Jonathan Edwards the olympic triple jumper and an incredibly fit man (Ran the marathon in a very competitive time) and made him do rugby league training. He ended up crawling round on his knees, not because he wasn't fit enough, simply because it's a different physical exercise to what he was used to.

The physical standard of Union players in Europe is better than that of league players. Big, stronger, faster and of the same level of fitness, albeit in a different kind of way. They might struggle with getting back the 10 initially but they would get over that very quickly.

Wasn't there a study by i think Northampton Uni that looked at all the sports and League came out on top by some way in terms of fitness levels ?