But all the evidence is to the contrary - money pours into the premier league despite the fact that you'll basically lose your shirt investing in Latics, Wolves, etc. I shouldn't have used the word 'invest' - the reality is that most rich people that put money into sport ( perhaps nowadays with the exception of the very top premier league sides ) do so more in hope (and for their egos) than expectation. Same in Union. But that's their fault - you can protect the sport without turning away their money.

Put it this way, if I won the Euromillions, I'd want to get Billy Slater, etc. to Wigan. I'd even sign Johnny Wilkinson - not for the sake of a player, just to get my club on the front pages and make people take notice of WIgan and Rugby League and shove one up the RaRa press. Now, if I was given free reign, it might screw the sport up, because in trying to make Wigan the greatest club bar none, I might fill it with Aussies and put the next best 50 players in the world in the reserves.

So I'd need some rules to stop me doing that. But in devising rules to stop *that* happening, you don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water and insist on a hard, and too low, cap.

Limit the squad, limit the overseas players, set a soft cap, where overspend is taxed and given to grass roots, and set another hard cap which is based on an independent auditors opinion of 'can the club afford this'.

BTW I'm not against raising the salary cap, just against getting rid of it completely.

I never said clubs werent better run now than every before (in fact they would struggle to be run any worse Than the were immediately prior to SL. We did however, at that point have fewer overseas players and more british players in our league.

And I have no problem with us having some kind of levelling out levers. I just think there are plenty better, plenty which are more focused and flexible than an arbitrary wage limit.

Squad limits of 25 with a minimum of 15 which have come through your academy would stop a club buying up all the talent. The points system floated in Australia. A squad of 20 to fit under a £1.2m salary cap and 5 marquee players whose salaries don’t count as examples.

I'm all for some flexibility that rewards clubs that work the hardest to bring through young players (note I say work the hardest, not pay the most).

I'm not against allowing a kind of "cap free" idea for marquee players either, so long as we didn't go overboard. Maybe a maximum of two per club with the rest fitting under the normal limit, with the rules to be voted on every 2 years?

As it is I suspect some clubs already have ways around the cap to ensure players are paid by third parties unconnected to the club but known to a club owner. The RFL can only audit a club and not another individual or company.

I think the real key is to attract money into the game as a whole, for many clubs such flexibility is a dream. It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation, big money backers will come with a big profile game, but only international success will get that. But to get international success we need more kids playing the game and getting good coaching and coming through the system.

Jonathan Davies was a RU half back who played wing and centre in RL - Quinell struggled to get in a Wigan side.

In RL you need half backs to break the line and create things - that is the last thing you want in RU as you would lose the ball.

RL is a territorial game - RU is about keeping the ball the only thing they have in common is the shape of the ball and the first name. Centres and wingers play a similar game in attack but it is the defence where RU players would struggle.