Conflict of interests perhaps, given they are also a commercial partner of Wigan?

I don't see a conflict of interest at all - Wigan clearly run the league already so why not formalise the arrangement by having them and their partners officially sponsoring it?

I can't believe how incredibly angry this has made me - it was bad enough them allegedly being allowed to sign that Welsh RU has-been off cap, but this is just a whole new level of disgusting unfairness... All my enthusiasm for the new season/stadium has been utterly blown out of the water now...

It depends what happens now. If it's a one off for Wigan to keep Tomkins in the sport I don't agree with it at all. If it's something the other clubs have voted in favour of and have been consulted on, then we can't really complain too much.

I suspect however that rather than the other clubs announcing how they'll benefit from the change and what they will do with it, that it will just go quiet. Wigan will benefit but no one else will and they'll spend £100k more than anyone else, which is how they have always wanted it to be.

What annoys me though is Leneghan's comments today about how Wigan now have enough room for a £100,000+ NRL centre. Although he said they don't want one, you get the feeling that's only because there are no decent player available due to the timing of it.

A salary cap ammendment that enables British young players to stay in the sport is good, but it shouldn't be a loophole that enables clubs to add further overseas players.

Wigan were also the first club to get prize money for winning the league leaders shield.

JJB were also once a sponsor of Superleague and it wasn't a problem then, in fact I think Saints actually won it.

You seem to have your nose close to the ground. Have you heard any specifics about the cap changes? Are they in fact cap changes or just Wigan being allowed an exemption to keep Tomkins in the sport? Will the other clubs get the benefits as well?

I've not heard anything more than yourselves but I wasn't shocked by it. I would like to hear the official side from the RFL which is why I posted the link to their Operational Rules yesterday and am hoping that they will soon be updated to show any changes.

I understand your point, and agree with the rule change (subject to it being clarified; the devil is often in the detail).

It would just make more sense, and be infinitely more fair, for it to be 'with effect from the 2012 season', for example. Changing the rules midway means that within the same season, some clubs have lost their star players without having the chance to offer them further incentive to stay while others get to benefit from the rule change and effectively giving them a larger cap to play with for the forthcoming season.

Given that the Salary Cap year runs from 1 December - 30 November, the change [iis[/i being implemented 'with effect from the 2012 season'.

So technically Wigan are in breach of the salary cap? I suggest a point deduction for every pound over the cap they are. At 100,000 points, I reckon thats about 2,000 years before Wigan earn a competition point again.

Seems reasonable.

Exactly - as it stands it is a rule change [ispecifically[/i to allow Wigan to cheat and gain an unfair advantage once again. Even if the rule [iis[/i applied globally and other clubs do eventually also benefit from it, there are only 3 or 4 clubs in the entire league in a strong enough financial position to be able to use it, as for every other club that is losing tonnes of money each and every year the old cap is too high for them to be able to afford already. Every non-"Big 4" club will now be faced with the prospect of either eternal mid-table mediocrity, or bankrupting themselves trying to keep up, exactly as per the '80s/'90s Wigan "glory years". It can serve no purpose but to give an unfair advantage to an elite few clubs and utterly annihilates the whole point of having a cap in the first place.

The simple fact is British RL can simply not compete with RU or the NRL for wages. Not by a long, long way. This move will do and can do nothing to change that until another 10 million a year in sponsorship magically appears for the league from somewhere. We all have to face up to the simple financial facts - British RL will only survive in the longer term at an inexorably lower talent level than it does currently and there's bugger all that any non-billionaire can do about it. Tomkins will still end up in RU or the NRL in a few seasons' time. All this does is make an already preposterous, random and deeply unfair league much, much less fair still.

Some of Ian Leneghan's comments this week suggest Wigan are in the process of having the salary cap scrapped altogether, or are threatening to do so. His comment about it being his belief that he can offer any player a better deal than any club in either code is particularly mysterious as some players in French RU have been given deals worth a third of the SL salary cap. Especially as Tomkins has taken this allowance already.

If the salary cap is scrapped then British RL is dead. Simple. I for one will not enter another RL ground if it ever happens - I don't see what would be the point, frankly. If Wigan or anyone else are that determined to make a mockery of the sport and cheat and buy their way to meaningless trophy wins in this way then let them sod off to RU and do it there and leave those of us who actually love the sport instead to continue enjoying it. B******s....