You can't stop people speaking to each other. You can have as many laws or terms in a contract as you like, but if they wish to talk, talk they will. It's so much easier these days anyway, since 99% of the time it's the agent acting as a go between, so no need for the player to get directly involved.

Not sure about "should have let him go" either, to tell you the truth. Why should they? He is contracted to the end of the season at least, and the vast majority of contracts these days, end with players signing for another club in mid season and then playing out their contract, without any problems at all. Why should anyone have assumed this would be different? In fact the only reason for Bath to have paid a transfer fee would have been to buy out the remainder of his contract, which the fact that he's still a Saints player, suggests they haven't, so there is no conflict of interest.

Talking to the other code, did you not know that was illegal??

Sending out Hospital passes to his fellow team members would be misconduct or indiscipline!!!

Did he get caught watching the England v Scotland 6 nations game on Sunday afternoon?

I'll tell you exactly what happened.

St Helens are a bit miffed that one of their star players has decided to jump ship and join another club.

Not only has he decided to join another club, heaven forbid... the man has decided to cross over to the dark side and play the 15 man code.


I suggest that suspending him is not enough.

This evil individual should be hung drawn and quartered for this traitorous act and his head should be mounted on a pole somewhere near junction 20 of the M6 to act as a warning to any other Rugby league players who might be tempted to sell their souls and head south to try their hand at making a bit of money in RU.


'appen other folks will not be trying that then

Maybe Eastmond was a bit miffed that the fans are a bit miffed that he's miffed off to Union and so he got a bit miffed at someone himself hence Saints getting miffed off and suspending him......miff?

I vote that this thread be locked immmediately to stop any disgusting rumours flying around that may get the administrators and / or the owners of this site facing a lawsuit from young Kylie Eastmond.

Lock it now.

Right now.

He'd still be asleep now were that the case.

Eastmond's attitude shouldn't surprise anybody. He's a young guy and excited about becoming a star in Union. What this does show up for nonsense is all the claptrap about how players leaving is just their business, lets wish them well etc - its probably going to affect Sts for the whole of this season as well as having to find a replacement for next year, and a loss of a talented British player from the game entirely.

Clubs need to work out how better to deal with young players who look like they have star quality. Giving them long-term deals early is one way to help lock them to the club concerned. That does mean taking a punt on players developing as hoped, but it also provides some protection against losing them. Leeds appear to have learned their lesson from the losses of Walker and Smith in that regard, and seem intent on signing up talented backs on long-term deals. Wigan appear to be doing the same.

Somewhat bizarrely in the case of Eastmond, a union club seems perfectly happy to take a punt on Eastmond despite his as yet unfulfilled potential and injury record.

The other related lesson is regarding contract negotiations. Sts could - and should - have made it clear to Eastmond that he either signed with them well before the new season started, or they would not negotiate further - in effect he'd be definitely leaving at the end of this season if he didn't re-sign by a set date.

What they have instead done is shown massive weakness towards a player, enabling him to comfortably carry on talking to all and sundry with no doubt that his fallback position of remaining at at Sts was always there.

On a side note, if I were Bath I'd be a tad concerned about this - it doesn't speak well for the guy's general attitude.

Is he

Deregisted yet still being paid.........Nonsense and everyone thought this had been cleared up after that Johns/Morley 2005 issue.

Just watched Boots 'n' All and I think Saints have suspended him for his 'tackle' on Karl Pryce!
Pathetic.
'What's that on the ground next to your teeth Kyle?'
'That's what's left of my ego'