Yeh you are right there. Just a shame he plays for the Pies as he is a great talent. More surprisingly I don't think any UK RU club could afford him.

im just surprised with everything thats on offer in RU there arnt more RL players clammering to switch codes.

Because they are men and are up for it.

i know they must love the game but i wonder how many players wish they could get the same benefits out of it as there RU counterparts.

Union could buy anyone willing to sell themselves. For a start, it sells out Twickenham six times a year or more, and (unlike Wembley and Old Trafford) it actually owns the stadium. Plus its international tv rights and its corporate sponsorship deals are worth a good deal more than ours. And that's ignoring the fact that it has double our number of participants, and that it is the sport of choice of the rich, old-money establishment and of the super-rich, new money in the City.

I think they'll see Eastmond as a fullback, much like they did with Robinson. The successful transition of Ashton, and particularly Myler, are the precidents.

I did warn about this a couple of months ago... when defending the importance of expansion as the only alternative to a slow and lingering demise as Union drains the stars from our game.

Union is much harder to learn and not many league players will make it in Union.

That is NOT to say it's better.... I'd rather watch paint dry... but the tackle area is entirely different, the breakdown has no equivalent in league, many of the core skills are counter-intuitive to a player who's brought up retaining possession at all costs. Union thinks Farrell, Harris and Henry Paul were all failures, and doesn't have much time for Vainakolo. Don't even mention Karl Price, Chev Walker and Lee Smith. The only real successes are Ashton and Myler, and before that Robinson and the Aussie backline Toquiri, Rodgers and Sailor.

Undeniable that the RFU make more money than the RFL but they do not give it to the top clubs' as Mr Chairman says' they pump theirs into the grass roots. I honestly can't see Leicester' Wasps Bath et al offering Tomkins the money the Pies will be paying Tomkins.

i believe the rfl pumps 30% of its income into grass roots RL.
unfortunately none of that comes from sky tv.
all the money from sky goes directly to the member clubs of super league europe ltd.
good innit.

And the rest goes where ?

champ clubs get about £70thou each.
i dont know what champ one gets but it wont be as much will it?.
then theres prize money and wages for staff and anything else that goes into running a business.

Running the RFL , and of course the 2 million a year they give to the Championship clubs

You`ll always get the odd snobby, pretentious one .

this is the sole reason why the gap between the two leagues has grown so big.

frank do you remember the lisa meeting we attended when AT and IM attended?. IM said to AT we get about 70k and AT nodded in agreement.
so when starbug says the championships get about 2mil,i think hes being very generous to the rfl.

Would that not include any prize money also?
That's over 1.5 million if every Champ club including Champ 1 got 70k each.