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.

i am very sorry but I do not support you lot,

They have started the move towards central contracts, like ECB, not fast enough though

temptation from rugby union will always be around, no matter what the RFL or the individual clubs do. Yes I agree it would be good if the RFL could either raise the sallary cap or make law changes to encourage teams to produce youngsters, but its not going to be easy to impliment quickly.

What makes me shrug it off (rightly or wrongly) is that whenever someone goes rugby league produces another. that is something they can't say. Do we miss ashton? I certainly don't, the kiwi's didn't miss SBW as they went on to win the world cup.

Yer it hurts to lose a player to yawion, and there is a bitter taste in the mouth, hopefully something can be brought in to hinder it, but i am not worried about the game because of union. I don't think tomkins will leave, but if he ever does, we'll just make another one, just like we always do.

I think the RFL need to put a system in place to protect the players both financially as well as every other aspect of our game.

Personally I do not blame a league player signing for a RU team if they are offering big money. Rugby is a sport were each game could literally be the players last with the injuries that can occur. RL isn't exactly a well paid sport, players need to think about themselves and their futures, money is (sadly) a massive factor in anyones life.

Such players (Farrell/Ashton etc) probably don't prefer RU to RL, but are sacrificing their reputation as a RL star and turning their back on their home team because the RFL league won't look after them financially. I'm sure Ashton/Farrell would have stayed at Wigan for as long as they were good enough if the money was right.

And in return the players are outcast by the fans that once cheered them for joining 'the darkside'.

Sadly life gets in the way and reality means player have to think about themselves despite their love for their club. The RFL needs to put something in place to stop this, we need our top young players to stay in our code to develop our game on every level, lets face it, it's already the best on field sport in the world. Let's do more with this great product.

If S Tomkins (look no 'p'

) is asked about RU or any other player they should be able to say that RU has never crossed their mind as they can play for their home town club in a better competition with better players for equal money to any RU club could offer.

That's certainly one way but the major flaw in that scenario would be that the player would have to be a seriously established international player to warrant one (Or at least they should, with the RFL you never know). More recently union has been poaching players at a younger age before they have had a chance to really become established within the game (Ashton, Thornley). I doubt Eastmond would even qualify for a contract at the minute as has he even played for England more than once yet?

The only ones who (imo) would get a central contract currently would be....

Peacock (Capt)
Morley
Graham
Roby
O'Loughlin
Burgess (Pointless - NRL)
Ellis (See Burgess)
Sam Tomkins
Ryan Hall

Why would he play RL as a kid if he was a Union fan? Isn't there a deep division between the two codes?

Sorry, but I have major problems with this attitude. For me, it's verging on dangerous self-delusion.

Firstly, why should RU be allowed to benefit from all the scouting and development work that RL has done to produce and develop these young men, purely because they are too hypocritical to police their salary cap properly? Secondly, if you think we can just produce another Sam Tomkins, then, with all respect, you're living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. We may be able to, but it could be years down the line. The last British home-grown player at Wigan of his natural talent waa Shaun Edwards, and how long ago was that?

I reckon that if we lost Tomkins and/or Eastmond, it would be disaster for British RL. And I don't agree that losing Ashton was unimportant. If he'd continued to develop the way he was doing, imagine what he'd be like now. Good grief, he's become a real good 'un under RU coaching. What would have happened if Maguire and Wane had got hold of him?

We can't afford to shrug our shoulders and pretend it doesn't matter. It honestly does. We have to find a way - and it's got to be cap related - to load the dice in our favour when it comes to these bidding wars that may lure away our young stars.

Hypocrisy? Saints fans? Salary Cap? Surely these expressions can't be connected to form a sentence?



I mean Saints fans can't be worried about their best young players leaving for RU, can they? I mean its all a propaganda ploy by Wigan fans desperate to see their team back at the top, isn't it?



I've got some news for any Saints fans reading this:

1. We ARE back on top, get used to it.



2. Even though we are back on top, many Wigan fans remain opposed to the CC because we are fans of the game first and the CC is a desperately unambitious system that will condemn RL to continuing stagnation at best and at worst, a slow long decline into sporting obscurity.

3. I don't want players like Eastmond to go to RU. Even if the prospect of it exposing Saints fans' hypocrisy does provide some light relief, its still a grim scenario and one which any RL fan should be appalled at, just as Saints fans were appalled when Wigan lost players (hang on, wait a minute, they thought it was amusing

).

He probably played both or may even have been signed from a Union side by saints it does happen I'm sure we will have academy players signed from Union teams. I have friends who play Union, League and Football so i dont see why not.