I love the NRL, maiinly because of the natural athletes they have comming thru, however all this (couple of years adjust) talk is rubbish imo. Sam Burgess is world class. The likes of Peter Shields and Barry Ward made a living in the NRL.

If people honestly believe that Sam Burgess and Gaz Ellis playing in the NRL will make England a better team than they're deluded. We could have our best 17 playing in the NRL and we'd still be light years behind. The likes of Sam Burgess, Gaz Ellis, Paul Sculthorpe etc... are not the problems. It's the amount of average joes that are!!

Super League is poor and by taking out the best british players is only going to make it sh*tter! If people wanna go and play in Australia they should not be allowed to play for England.

good luck to him i only hope he's not not gone too early...

Makes you wonder what Bradford have up their sleeve. Have they made a few expensive signings of their own to compensate for this or are they just struggling financially?

What evidence or argument do you have, apart from personal opinion, to support that argument? The introduction of a New Zealand team in the NRL has ultimately led to them being World Cup winners which is a pretty big argument for players playing in the best competition in the world.

I get your point about improving the game over here is the only way in which we will catch up and how retaining the best British players over here is critical to doing that. However that doesn't mean the original point about the importance of British players testing themselves at the highest club level is invalid. It will always be valid for as long as the NRL is significantly ahead of Super League in terms of quality and intensity.

Bradford are ok money wise, our chairman has come out and said this many a time, plus we made a profit last year and expect the same this year. Only thing is we have nobody putting money into the club. Hope we have something up our sleeve because half our team has left.

Took their time to bag him, was ages ago Russell Crowe bounced into town and offered £250k big ones to teh club for his services. Great deal for Sam, who is without a shadow of a doubt a top quality, grade-a forward and I hope he has a ball in the NRL. Good luck to him, and with Gaz Ellis as a buddy I am sure he can settle in a little easier knowing he has a fellow yarkshire bloke to natter to and have a few Tetleys on the beach.

Good luck to Sam.

Good luck to him - I hope he dents a few Aussie ego's with his big hits definetly Bradfords loss but I think they did the right thing cashing in if he was determined to go next year anyways ..

Good luck to him but i think he will get banged a fair bit.

If we want to catch up with the aussies, then having our lads go over there should mean they can eventually bring what they've learned back (whether it be returning to a club or joining the boys at international camp), which will improve our game. It'll take more than two players to make a big difference, but the more they realise there are actually some poms who can play a bit, then the more interest our lads will get from the aussie clubs.

IMO there's plenty of british lads who could, as individuals, slot in to NRL teams and do decent jobs. The Aussie clubs may start see a hard working pom with a point to prove as a decent alternative to some crazy polynesian (given the flood of negetive headlines the NRL clubs seem to be getting).

Has Eastmond re-signed with Saints yet

We've plenty of cap space and are currently operating at a (rather slim) profit.

Sam is a truly world class player at 20 yrs old. A lot of people will tell you that props don't reach their full potential until their late 20's, so if he decides to come back to SL in the future, he will still have a lot to offer the English game; (think of Mozza at Warrington).

bit of an over-statement

IMO burgess is in for a pretty big shock. I don't think he's ready to play nrl just yet.

The is no doubt he's going to be world class but I think the Aussies will target him.

One of the first newpaper stories about ellis at hte Tigers was how, in a game against the Roosters, Willie Mason was seen to say something like "let's get that Ellis, he's a faggot", next thing you know, Ellis had put him on his .

The more tackles Sam has to make, probably the better he'll look. If they run at him, they'll just make things easier