Claire Balding will be devastated.

Why? She's a lesbian.

Already seen some Union fans and so called knowledgeable writers saying he'll be another Rugby League legend who fails to hack it at Rugby Union.

He's 34 FFS!

They're making comparisons with Andy Farrell who left Rugby League as a recent Golden Boot winner and the best Rugby League player on the planet yet failed to make an impact at Rugby Union

He was a semi crippled, over the hill front rower who played for England RU as a centre, jeez!

This is my only worry about Sinfield going to Union!
We know he's retiring but the Union hacks will spin this to make their inferior game look too difficult for a League legend.

Good luck to him though, he deserves to do whatever he wants.

For my part, I think he's a bigger, better and more skillful version of Jonny Wilkinson and had he switched 10 years ago he'd be a World wide household name!

Sinfield never really had the chance to cement his place as the England/Great Britain RL Captain like he did during his Leeds career due to coaches selecting others ahead of him. If he had Long term captaincy for his country then he could have paralleled what he has done for Leeds.

Sinfield's retirement from internationals was probably because he knew that his treacherous transfer to the dark side was impending.

In any case retirements from the international game are like club playing contracts -- utterly nullifiable, only more so.

My only issue is the spin for RU. But he'll be joining a second tier club when most players are long retired. I imagine they'll be wanting his influence in and around the team as much as anything. The only real downside would be if he ends up in the RU coaching world like Edwards, Ford and Farrell - that would not be good for RL at all.

As a player he's one of those whose highlights reel may be a bit lacking (especially compared to say Burrow and McGuire at the same club) but his overall impact for Leeds has been immense. Captaining his club to 6 GFs and CC, third highest point scorer of all time and captaining his country are a marvellous legacy.

Lets not forget GB/England haven't had a winning captain in terms of tournaments or anything involving Australia for 40 years so you can't say the likes of Hanley were particularly successful by that measure either.

Or, you could have put, "he could retire now with the blessing of a small number of narrow minded people who probably have never met him"

Not sure what world you live in but I live in the one where most need to work for a living. That included RL players. I am not going to pretend to know what KS has earned in his working life so far, but I dear say it's not enough to completely stop working. The chance of earning a living through sport would be jumped at by most who contribute to this forum, I dear also say by those who are coming to the end of an RL career.

Agreed
However, the guy is unlikely to be a "star" in Union and it seems strange that he couldn't attract a better offer and remain in RL.
Maybe it was Leeds or nothing. However, as captain on club and country (retired), this still looks like a slap in the face for the code that he has served with distinction throughout his long career.
Again, he's an articulate guy that would have been great as an ambassador for the sport, on TV etc.

Perhaps Leeds Carnegie have lofty ambitions and want to gain promotion to the top flight of Union and a strong League and Union outfit at Headingly would certainly improve the "Leeds" brand and increase revenue into Headingley.

aren't Leeds' has-beens supposed to go to Wakefield ?

He was quoted as saying he didn't ever want to play against Leeds.

As for him being a fluent communicator on the game, I wouldn't bet against his featuring in some future capacity. He made it known ages ago that he'd like to give union a crack and at this stage I wouldn't read any more into it.

As much as I have admired the bloke as a person & a player I don't think he comes across that well as a communicator. Whether that's him not letting his professionalism slip & he will relax more when retired I don't know.

Yeah, my bad. I meant compared to the current crop of pundits.

He's a bit stunted in an interview situation, but that's not his natural environment. On the pitch he's visibly expressive hen communicating. I would suggest he's probably the same in the changing rooms. I'm sre that if he settled into the TV studio environment he could imropve, but whether he'd be charismatic enough to get a TV gig long term, im not sure.

I'd say he is retiring from League as a whino's legend , if he wants to get himself a nice little retirement package playing Union whats the issue? Good on him.

Will he really be on that much at a Championship RU club?