I fully agree with you Dave!

Really? Sam signed the contract at the same time his brother went to Union and no doubt had a fat offer on the table at the time to go as well. He negotiated his new contract with an extremely strong hand after recently switching to an agency with a reputation for touting players to Union and I would suggest that IL's offer of a 5 yr contract with a specific 3 yr agreement not to speak to other clubs was competent and sensible business. The contract is essentially a 3 yr deal with a subsequent 2 year option afterwards in Sam Tomkins favour, a safety guard if you will if he were to suffer a serious injury in year 3. If he were to stay past the 3 year mark I've no doubt it would be re-negotiated.

Let's also tackle the NRL/compensation thing. The contract is between the player and the club in English law. Let's set aside the fact that over the last 10 yrs or so since the Bosman ruling the transfer fee has all but disappeared from English sport, attempting to get anything from an Australian club who are bound by none of the terms it contains would be futile. Given the contract has a specific agreement for him not to speak to other clubs for part of the contracts duration, if it doesn't contain a release clause at that point also would be quite simply bizarre.

I'm with the 'I'd rather he go to the NRL than the RU' camp. He'd could make a tidy sum in Australia, where League is arguably the most popular sport. He'd be a superstar and learn from some of the best coaches and players in the game. That can only be good from an international point of view, but also for when he comes back to us

If an NRL team can afford Sonny Bill Williams as rumoured with the TV money going up, then they can afford Tomkins. I hope for the sake of our game he chooses to stay in rugby league and not to join his brother.

To have half the England team in the best competition would be brilliant for us internationally.

Please name them, a cap for England is worth £30,000 and I wouldn't picture him playing for the national team in his first year, in terms of sponsorship I think a rookie to rugby union would struggle it's only players who have performed to a certain level on the international stage.

Union would use Sam as a high profile signing and arrange high sponsorship deals for him......

I hope he stays with us for ever but can understand why he would want to have a go in the NRL and if someone is going to knock your head off probably better to be near Bondi beach than Wigan pier.

Sam is THAT good he's half the England team? No wonder they'ld want him in the NRL

All of this is still speculation but the media are reporting it's a one year deal with the roosters he'll be competing as a boxer and after the season in the nrl will be playing in the Japanese rugby union league in the off season earning over £1 million Aussie dollars and then continuing his career else where.

I will still be gutted. The best player I have seen in week in week out.

Disaster for super league losing their best players as well.

If the internet was as strong in the 80s/90s as it is now i feel we would have been having the same conversation about mr Hanley. Great players come and go and it always seems like the end of the world when it happens, but new faces are always coming through and the conveyor belt will continue to produce equal if not better talent for many more years to come.
The king is dead....long live the king i say.