Glad to see him coming back. I worry about his injuries but it would have been disgusting to see him run out in a Saints shirt!

His experience will be invaluable to young halves like Williams and Shorrocks and he offers us a good option with him being able to play both at 7 or 9.

You do have to wonder who's leaving to accomdate this though.

My guess would be Hampshire. The club are saying it mirrors the Paul Deacon move. When we had deacon he wasn't given a starting shirt and at the start of the season was purely backup.

With the coaching deal added on, could he be on a very low salary as a player then very highly paid coach?!

His whole salary counts on the cap regardless of how its split between player and coach so there wouldn't be any great benefit in doing so

YEP as long as it's the same season, but Tommy has signed a 2 year deal as player (maybe on a lower salary) because he is then going to move over to coaching after finishing playing (and this may well be very well paid and wouldn't count towards his playing salary cap of the previous 2 years)

more than one way to skin a cat

Tommy as a Deacon-type signing would work nicely.

If it is all in the same contract it doesn't matter, as the RFL, unlike the NRL, have calculations in place to stop back ending contracts. Since "the time of the payment" doesn't matter, the very high coach payments can very well be judged as part of the first couple of years salary.

Many ways to skin a cat, but this ain't one of them.

Yep, his injury record is a concern. Would be pretty sickening if we're getting rid of Smith, to Saints of all teams, and then Tommy ends up crocked again. We'll soon realise how important Smith is/was to us if that's how this plays out.

Looking at the positive side of things though, it's great to have him back, he was coming back to England regardless so I'd rather it be with us than any of our rivals. We have a great player on our hands if we can get him on the field on a consistent basis and I'm sure when he transitions into coaching his experience will be a great asset to us.

How many on here would have had the same high opinion of Leuluai if he had chosen St Helens to milk a few quid out of them before he retires?

But that only counts for playing salaries, for cap purposes. Any future coaching contract would be a separate entity.

If Smith is the one sacrificed for Tommy's return its a hell of a gamble given his injuries not sure its one i'd take thats for sure,though when fit of course he's still a huge talen.

Good to see long term his move onto the coaching staff.

Well if we could find a full-back...

Phil Wilko reckons Tommy would have earned more staying at NZW, but the appeal of moving into coaching was a big one.

Sensible move that suits both parties.

Also says hes got a young family and the plan was always to move back to England

Wane said on Wigan Tv that Williams, Shorrocks and Matty Smith can learn from playing with Leuluai.

I wonder if this means we will see Tommy switched between 7 and 9 and take the opportunity to give Smith a rest at times - not a bad option to have. So we could have Williams and Shorrocks to cover 6, Smith and Tommy to cover 7 and MM/Powell to cover 9 with Tommy able to cover 9 and Powell to cover halves, that would be a lot of options if it worked. No more dropping forwards to half.