I think the point I was trying to make is when will the financial pull of union stop our young players leaving a much better sport?

Youve only got to look at Eastmond and understand that the talent that we develop needs to stay within our sport if we are to have any chance of catching the aussie!! Obviously they have a much larger population to develop talent from and the pull of union is not as great however you only need to look at Sonny Bill who left the game a couple of years ago!

Why has the value of the joy of the game suddenly been lost over recent years???

Fair do's mate you know your stuff.

I dunno. I never followed Rugby League before it was on Sky so I cant say how the situation was but from what I have heard and read, lots of Rugby League Clubs were going to the wall. I found Rugby League as a 12 year old tuning into Sky Sports on a friday night so it being on Sky worked for me.

Also how much coverage would BBC really give Rugby Leage if Sky never purchased the rights? Would have we seen summer Rugby league? Would have BBC shown at least two live games per week? How about a championship game?

I have serious doubts that the game would be better off or bigger if it stayed on BBC.

I have to say that Henry Paul was the biggest loss for Super League. He was a truely talented player who added a lot to the competition.

I agree that Ashton did have a lot of holes in his game, who knows what would have happened but given that our lack of a fullback in last years 4 nations we could have done with a few extra options.

France is a clever one and hard to argue against, nice post Damo.

I would have to say that from a GB perspective that Iestyn Harris was a massive loss. I great play maker when the GB team lacked great playmakers.

The truly sad thing was that Paul and Harris were not very good Union players. So it was a loss on both sides (money for them, talent for us).

When you think about it the NRL have suffered a lot more than us. Losing players of the quality of Gasnier, SBW and Matt Rogers should have crippled them.

After watching the Barnes vs Stevo debate on Skysports.com I have to say that English Rugby Union are taking short cuts rather than putting the hard work in. I know we are not benefitting from having our players taken but they are not really benefitting from it either. Its a sad state of affairs one both sides.

I think Eastmond will struggle because of his size, the only place he could play is in the halfs, but good luck to him. I feel sorry for Saints who developed him into the player he is & they let Long go as he was to be the new man, but maybe they should have tied him to a 10 year deal then they would at least have demanded a large transfer if he was intent on going? If our clubs want to hold on they must show faith & offer good long deals to young players they would just have to structure the deal to reward succsess by insentive based payments.