Most of the points are well made on here but I'd love to see the workings of how Union and League go about putting in the foundations for success.

Sam Burgess may very well be moving for the money. However, it would not be too radical to suggest he might very well be doing it because England RU have a much greater chance of international success in an important tournament (e.g. World Cup).

Some have mentioned scrapping the Salary Cap and allowing endorsements/central funding. Would that make much difference? This is a game whose elite league in GB struggled to replace Engage with a title sponsor and most of the club's, even the bigger ones, don't have national or internationally recognised companies investing. The games finances are precarious at club level for several teams and the rising of the Salary cap would distort the league.

Another point well made was the lack of interest in the Aviva Premiership in terms of attendances. For a game that can virtually guarantee a sellout at Twickenham for international's it doesn't get football crowds for its domestic game. If we follow the central contract route we may improve internationally but it will be to the detriment to the Super League, which is really the main interest for RL fans in the UK.

We need an approach where we promote the areas of the heartlands and give as much money, infrastructure & communication as possible. We need more ex-players involved in the development of players, not for one club, but as a central RFL pool - a centre of excellence similar to Wigan' s Central Park but on a greater scale. The club's keep their academies and developmental areas and offer advice, coaching, scouting etc to help maximise potential.

The game needs selling at grassroots level with some level of confidence and security, whilst putting in real work on finding potential areas of development beyond the heartlands with investment from local authorities and businesses for local clubs to set up and links with Championship and SL clubs to offer a breakthrough scheme for players.

All of this can be offered to sponsors bigger than we currently have as a community, healthy sport with the potential to earn money.

This is being done I'm sure, but to what extent I'd love to know.

I have been reading the comments on Burgess and most of the comments and ideas are good. The reality is that he left Souths for the money. However the idea of scrapping the cap I think is crazy. You will get clubs trying to live the dream and sending the clubs bust. As Wigan supporters I imagine you look back at the days in the 90s when you won everything, however it bust the club, what has happened to Central Park, you are now don't have a ground, nor do Fax, look at Swinton. If the cap works it forces clubs to be sensible

1 - Foden
2 - Ashton
3 - Tuilagi
4 - Barritt
5 - Strettle
6 - Ford
7 - Eastmond
8 - Robshaw
9 - Care
10 - Lawes
11 - Tomkins
12 - Twelvetrees
13 - Farrell

The cap hasn't stopped lots of clubs going bust.

We need better financial regulation that encourages clubs to grow, not a salary cap that encourages clubs to do nothing to improve their finances. (Players are paid over 30% less in real terms than they were pre-cap, this is just not sustainable, we are heading for a semi-pro future.)

Winning everything didn't bust the Wigan club. The new stand at CP ran millions of pounds over budget, that's what did for us financially.

Comparing us with Halifax and Swinton is hilarious. We've just seen more Wigan fans go to Sydney than most clubs take to nearby away grounds. We are the cup holders and SL champions and along with Leeds get the biggest attendances at home (in the ground we don't have...).

I can't believe you can be so blind with what is happening to top flight RL in this country.. It's being raped of all its top players!!!! What happened 30 years ago is totally irrelevant....

Whoahh...we won't have facts on this forum thank you very much.