Not trolling,just a thought with the loss of players such as Farrell (allbeit at the end of his career) and Ashton to Kick and clap, how worried are you lot that Tompkins et al may become targets for the dark side?

It has crossed my mind yes, but I think if anything, Sam is more likely to go to the NRL than RU.

It's probably the reason that we are getting the young lads all signed up on long term deals.

With Sam Tomkins I'm not concerned in the slightest. He said in a programme interview that he finds Rugby Union boring and can't watch the sport let alone play it.

I'd like to think that the higher percentage of local talent which makes up our squads the lower the risk of losing them to anyone else be it another Super League or NRL team or Yawnion.

Surely local players would want to play for their home town team. I look forward to the day when 1 to 17 are from Wigan, that should be what we're aiming for.

I cant see that for a while but i dont think a Wigan 1-13 is too far away though.

I wish people would stop spelling tomkins with a P in it as he/brother have been about in the 1st team for 3 years

They can try if they like. Won't work though. Sam is signed up until 2014. The only place Sam will leave Wigan for is the NRL IMO and I wouldn't hold it against him if he did go should that opportunity present itself

english rugby union has a sallary cap now, so would struggle to waffed the notes in front of young rugby league players faces these days, the french rugby union have money and power now, but they are a less of a threat as most of these lads are home birds.

Hopefully with the new sallary cap in ERU wont be poaching as much as in the past.

I wonder if there may be some news on this in the coming weeks?

It is still a worry though,it's like the situation at my club where Kyle Eastmond has another year left on his contract.
There are still rumours going around that he will be going to Sale Sharks in the future.
The RFL have to do something about our talent going to union.

So whose fault is that then?

Interesting. This is the first ever comment of this sort that I've seen from a St Helens fan, and it seems to have coincided with Wigan replacing them as tops dogs in the UK.

No disrespect intended to you, mate - and I fully agree with your sentiment. But we have many times been berated on this message board, primarily by Saints fans whose team was enjoying a period of dominance, for expressing concern about our loss of young talent to Union. It's funny how, when everything's going your way, other people's problems (even if they have potentially far reaching consequences) don't matter too much. But when you're down among the also-rans, those problems suddenly look very real.

For what it's worth, unless the RFL take action to help us keep our top youngsters, I expect that both Eastmond and probably Sam Tomkins, maybe Joel too, will be Union in about five years. Unless the RU cap starts to be policed effectively, the financial enticements will eventually overcome home club loyalties.

The cap needs to be moderated, to help us hang onto our home grown talent. That's all there is to it. I'm not talking about doing away with the cap. Just altering it so that our Academy signings are discounted.

I think theres a difference with Kyle Eastmond though. He's from Oldham so there's a good chance that he grew up following the Union and Sale rather than Saints or any other League team. However, seeing this about the SC in Union then as long as Saints offer him good enough contracts etc then I imagine that he will stay loyal to those that gave him his original opportunity.

I should hope so anyway. I know I would, even if that was Saints or Wire. Unless the pay cut was tiny to move to Wigan haha.

I might be a Saints fan but it's not just Eastmond I am worried about.
It has nothing to do with Wigan replacing Saints as top dogs I consider myself an RL fan first,Saints fan second.
The RFU will be closely watching all our talent including Tomkins and the likes of Sale with your ex chief exec I would be a bit concerned.