small to medium size loss to the NRL, no loss to Super League, big loss to a national team that hardly plays a game.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/26223690 As if anyone believes he won't be in the national team within weeks of his Union debut

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/26223690 As if anyone believes he won't be in the national team within weeks of his Union debut

I don't really understand or watch union these days but can a player like Sam really be effective at centre in that game? Seems weird to me. A blockbusting all action forward playing out wide?!? Am I missing something?

He would be far too athletic to play in the forwards in Union. He's also likely to have more skill than any of the actual RU backs (ie the few who haven't been poached from RL).

You can almost smell the bitterness in some of the pots on here







Massive mistake for both Sam and the RFU IMHO.......he won't add a single bum to a seat at games given he is virtually unknown in Britain and he will not be the star that patently some think he can be in the English game. The French currently have a heavy set (union-speak for chunky) Centre who they hoped would crash and unload.....he has been weighed and found out by the opposition already. As for SBW, he played a minor role in the AB's winning the RWC in 2011........he is a show pony that again has been pretty well collared at international level...6 tries with 1 against France, 1 against Canada and 2 against Japan and Ireland each.....the difference with him is that he has at least a bit of box office, but he won't add bums to seats when he returns to the chiefs next year.

Too much attention played to these players IMHO.......the game is bigger than any player.

Do you see him as a centre Gutterfax?

I'd sooner see him play in the back row.

He's mobile enough for back row, but do you really see the RFU paying him to get to the breakdown first, get hands on the ball and then disappear under a pile of bodies to be used as a door mat?
8 would be a decent position for him with instructions to "roam" where possible, but it would take more than a year to teach him how to do that.
Play him at inside centre and he becomes a one trick pony (crash tackle or crash and off-load). Play him at 2nd Centre and you risk him being skinned on the outside.

It really is a strange decision......for all parties concerned.

I am sure that if he'd stayed in Sydney he could have built a legacy (or at least some form of post-RL media Career) He will be forgotten in seconds by the English public if he fails.....which I think he will.

Still, good luck to the guy. He's only got 10 years or so to earn enough to do him a lifetime...he needs to make it while he can!

I'd be tempted to try him as a blindside flanker... I'm not sure he is number 8 material personally.. you are right, it would take him a lot longer to learn the role of that position.

I definitely cant see him in the centres though.

If the RFU drove a truck full of money and guaranteed spot in the England RU team for the World Cup up to your house, you'd not turn it down.

Fair play to Sam for going for it. I don't see what position he's likely to play in a Union side, but he's going to come out of those 3 years probably set for life and he'd still be likely to walk into most SL sides if he chose to return to League

It's just sad that RU can't produce their own players and have to panic buy the best from our code when the England team have run of poor results.

I'll be the one to say it, I don't think he has the outright pace to play international outside centre. 12 these days is more a second fly half so I don't see that working.

Top class flankers are born offside you can't coach a Richie mccaw A Richard hill or serge betsen its natural flair that is polished up. I'm struggling to see how at international level he fits in other than an old school power inside centre smashing down defences. Better learn tactical kickin

Hope it works for him. Sadly I see him in 3 years a failed international but excellent premiership player and about 15kg overweight

no you won't!
Have you got me on "ignore" too



...

The more I think about this story the more strange it seems.

Sure he will be on more money playing RU and if he's any good at it the chance to become a worldwide household name.

But apparently the guy has never even played the game before and yet the RFU want to fast track him into the England side. This wont sit well with those fringe international players in the 15 man code who are rightly going to feel that this bloke could scupper their own international careers. He is going to be targetted big time and I'm not sure he has either the talent or the temperament to cope with it.

He was on a decent wage at Souffs and thanks to Rustys connections never had his face off channel 9 or out of the papers.


Apart from the well publicised fine he got from Madge and Greg Inglis's spray about him I'm sure there is far more to this story than meets the eye.