Not sure what can be gained by the partnership idea. Sarries may have a No8 who could play prop for us but as for the rest I'm not sure they will have anything better than we have. Will have to wait and see on that one.

As for the cross code match, lets just forget it. Another publicity coup for Union over League. They have unlimited tackles (phases) and we have six tackles. Guess who would win that one!
If it goes ahead then it has to be unlimited phases and tackles for both teams or six for both teams. Otherwise forget it.
This all happened fifteen years ago so why resurrect it now?
If it does go ahead I most certainly won't be going!

Would you want to pay your money and watch and if so why?
I would rather poke my eyes out with a rusty spanner.

I can't wait to pay x amount to watch Joel Tomkins and Owen Farrel, we might even get a wave from Andy Farrell, well worth anyones money.

That aside, I probably would go, I'd love it if we beat them. It'd be a small victory for RL and Wigan.

That was over 15 years ago though, a lot has changed in both sports since then.

1.... He may have played there... But he's always a forward for me...plus.. he is still listed on your official website as a second row.

2... I KNOW THERE IS NO MERGER... It was an example... The example being that they were brought together and it was forgotten after a short amount of time.

I think they are worthless. Any sporting contract is pretty much worthless to the employer, (except in the case of a club who has massive spending power, and no Communist Cap), who can afford both financially, and in the context of not wasting players salary on a disaffected player who could choose not to give 100%.

As for the partnership- I struggle to see how it can benefit Wigan, but can't say I feel strongly either way.

In a game of Union, we would get battered. A game of League would be won relatively easily. It's been tried before (with a Wigan team with a hell of a lot more talent than the current one, and a Bath team who were just on the brink of professionalism).

Blimey, it's taken a Wire fan to hit the nail on the head!

I'd say it's far better to have a working relationship with a rival than having them park their tanks on your lawn. Unless of course the RFU have had IL over a barrel and forced him to agree to something that would allow Saracens to continually shaft us over, because he has form for being such a dreadful businessman, no really

Maybe Wigan could sign a partnership with Preston North End and get back involved with Maurice.

First thoughts were confusion, then anger and now confusion again.

I cannot see IL putting Wigan in harms way and agree that there WILL be players not suited to union who could make the switch. However if the though of one more League player going the other way makes me shake with rage.

Hopefully this "Partnership" will involve no more than a few mixed training sessions a year.

I hope we smash the bejesus out of them in any cross code game both on the score sheet and in the tackle.

I remain open minded at the moment, but if any negativity comes because of this i will ramp up to hysteria factor 20.

You get more obvious with each and every passing day Sally.

Keep em comming

At the end of the day, if this 'partnership' isn't what it seems then I'm sure that IL (with Wigan's interest at heart) will simply walk away from it.

I think people need to trust our chairman a bit more after all I think he has earned that much. The way some of the people on here are going on you would think he has given our club to Saracens

Is it me or does this story remind anyone else of 'Jack and the Beanstalk'?

For selling Joel we have got some 'magic beans' in partnershiop with Saracens in the hope we get a player not suited to Union and becomes a superstar in League.

I'm gutted that we had to find out from Saracens, we all knew he was going but the only reason I think IL has done this is because some League players wouldn't mind trying Union to see if they could make it without upping sticks and waving goodbye to League, they might want to give it a shot on loan with the safety net in place of returning to their old club and vise versa, I reckon some Union players might want a shot in League e.g. Strettle, Hodgson and Farrell

What does this partnership seem? So far all I have heard is it will be back room staff exchanging ideas. I am blowed if I know what they can teach us.

In general these partnerships get mentioned every now and again. Links with NL1 sides, links with an NRL side and now a link with an RU side. They never seem to come to much and IMO that is because they are impractical and both sides soon realise the are more trouble than they are worth if they get off the ground at all.

Given Sarries are 200 miles down M6/M1 its hardly going to be a close working relationship is it. They train at Hertfordshire Uni (great facilities BTW was there a few weeks ago with my son) but we are hardly going to pop down on a Tuesday to use the gym!