We promote the game as much as we can and have a great marketing set up. If the RFL ask us to help them by doing some promoting or whatever I would tell them to get stuffed because they do fook all for us. Weve got to do whats best for Wigan, stuff everybody else. Im sick of us bending over backwards to drag our game forward but the RFL mess up everything they touch and most other clubs are happy just existing.

He ran with great aggression last night, might be useful if he can cut out the mistakes at the play the ball and get himself fit.

I dont really buy comments like this tbh. Keep reading that players might do better under a better coach or if they get fitter or if they can add something to/cut something out of their game. For a raw, young British player with potential then maybe but Lauaki is 27 and would take up a quota space.

For me, as we are currently one of, if not the best team in the league we should be going for players from other SL teams who are playing well week in week out, not taking chances on players who might bring something but on current form aren't good enough. No disrepect to Hull FC, but a player should be rewarded for outstanding form by a move to a bigger club, not just taking a punt on them cos they are out of contract.

Dont know where you live mate or if you listen to rumours or not but its common knowledge he has signed on. Interesting to see him wearing a red and white mouth guard when Hull play in black and white, unless he is going to the Robins down the road next season. Am looking at the bigger picture, i agree two of our promising props are leaving us next season and am not happy about that.

Yeh I know it's pretty much nailed on like just saying I don't really go for signing players on ifs and buts. He may prove me wrong and I hope he does but I've never seen anything to suggest he's anywhere near the quality we should be looking at. Hoffman out Lauaki in

What does that even mean? If Wigan have signed him for off-field purposes, it will so they can tap into the Welsh area, which in the past has provided some unbelievable talent.

What has this signing got to do with the RFL?

Doesnt make sense though does it?

It has but that was in the past and it's just irrelevant now. Wales has given the likes Davies, Gibbs, Quniell and many others to RL but you might notice one thing in common with those players. They were established International RU players looking to make earn a living from sport when they could not when Welsh RU was still amateur. If you think signing Thomas is going to see the modern likes of those players switching codes I think you are mistaken. If signing him is to try and lure Welsh players who can't make it in the top flight Welsh RU sides why we we even looking?



The rumour is they will pay his wages, he won't count on our salary cap and in return the RFL want Wigan to promote RL in Wales.

If there is anything in this rumour it seems a total distraction to me.

Only you could think that Wigan opening a door to the massive reservoir of Welsh rugby talent is a distraction rather than an advantage.

I'm sure that Ian Lenagan, Shaun Wane et al are going to be massively distracted from their day-to-day Wigan RL activities because they now have scouts based permanently in Wales (as opposed, to example, to the scouts they already have based in Cumbria, Yorkshire etc).

I can just imagine the frustration of yet again - sigh! - having to go and cast an eye over yet another incredibly talented kid who nobody else has picked up on yet. Things like that are such a distraction that it hardly bears thinking about.

And are you telling me the answer is hidden away in Wales currently playing 2nd string RU?



Any Londoners playing the game as a result of the pro RL team down there or the Skolars or any other RL side are welcome to do so. It's great they are. The fact they are playing the game and some of them may well turn out to be very good at it has nothing to do with Wigan but whatever development work has already been done locally. It is not Wigan's job to get them playing the game and the "We" who should get them playing the game is the RFL and the expansion clubs in the locality.

If having booted the Crusaders out of SL the RFL are concerned about what that means for RL in Wales perhaps they should have pumped as much time money and effort into the club as they have London over the last couple of decades. Not come up with a (rumoured) hair brained scheme to foist Thomas on us for a season in the hope that is going to make up for it.

As I said in my other post the rumour is Wigan will have to undertake development work in Wales for this to happen when we simply do not need to do so. And that isn't anti-expansionist at all. It's just common sense that it is not our job. If Wigan want to send a scout into Wales looking for players as they do into Cumbria or Yorkshire that is fine but this is rumoured to be far more than that.

What "massive reservoir" of Welsh Rugby talent?

I am very familiar with RU in North Wales and believe it or not, it is not the religion it is down south. My son has spent the last decade playing against Welsh clubs as a junior for Chester. And Chester 1st team plays at a level that the best North Wales club play to. It is not a very high level. Wrexham, Mold, Llandudno and so on do not play at a high level.

If we are talking South Wales well that is even more impractical to do what is being suggested.



That is not what is being suggested. As I said in my post prior to this the rumour is Wigan will have to undertake development work in Wales not just scout.



Widnes came and watched a game of Chester v Winington Park last year so I am sure other RL sides maybe including Wigan already go and scout around just as Sale will watch amateur RL sides around Wigan, St Helens and Warrington. There are bucket loads of RU sides just south of the M56 and any RL club can go an scout at if they wish. English as well as Welsh. Have they been missing a trick by not doing so? Given the standard RU is played at, probably not.

Perhaps it is

The thing is though, you are totally wrong there. Absolutely wrong. Why should every aspect of RL profile enhancement be left to the shower at Red Hall?. Should it not be duty of top flight teams like Wigan, Saints, Leeds etc to try to and invest in RL development throughout the whole UK (and Ireland is desired). Why should that be left to the governing body? what a narrow minded load of old ar£e. We should have our grubby little hands in every pipeline we see fit. Either that or WRLFC could maybe stick a flyer on a lamp post in Swinley advertising a training session and cross there fingers that some bugger turns up?
I fail to see what the fate of Crusaders has to do with this conversation, so nip that in the bud
Well it might not be in our "Terms of reference" but i would be made up if the famous Wigan Rugby league club set up training camps, scouting exercises etc in the heart of "rugby" playing land. It could turn out to be a goldmine!. I get exited thinking about our club spending a few quid now that could pay off in maybe 5-10 years.

We could be the RL equivalent of Man utd who have set up scouting and development structures all across every continent and reap the rewards like they have. We could be on to a winner. I am sure that would you of anyway