If nothing else, we can live in hope that big brother will fill his head with an eye-witness account of how crap Union is.

Given that he's missed the ru world cup I am hopeful he will indeed return. For all the flack IL is currently getting, his track record of recapturing the prodigals is faultless.

If Sam returns next year, I will take back the criticism ( or most of it!) I have made this past month about the poor recruitment by SW/IL/Rads for this season......

Fingers crossed the new marquee signing rule gets passed in June (and doesn't get rejected because of votes against by all the clubs without ambition - or money!)

it [iwould [/ibe nice to have him back, but (a) what about those who are on the way up & might have a claim to any position SW wants to put him in and (b) I'm in two minds about the whole marquee-player doobry: won't it engender a degree of resentment from those who might think they're also worth some extra dosh? I'd like to think they're all grown up, but we only need one Pietersen in the camp to start throwing their teddy-bears about & all hell'll break loose.

Still, all this is pure speculation bordering on hogwash at the moment & it's not even silly season.

(although I hear Dermot O'Leary is now a free agent)

Fully agree.

If we can get Sam Tomkins back I think it solves a lot of issues in one go. Our gameplan revolved around him and it's not worked as well since he left. I hear people mentioning Goulding as a reason why Charnley now doesn't score as many when bagging Gelling but it's due to Tomkins departure IMO.

That is just one example of what we lost when he walked away. Sadly I still can't see it but we live in hope.

I hope the family connection holds sway - Joel is here for another 4 years at least. I also think we need to be seen to be keeping Logan - as an extra inducement and justification for Sam to "come home"!

[

To put it quite bluntly - who cares.

There isn't a player at Wigan who is even near Sam's league.

Any FB or 6 we have would rightfully lose their place in the side as Sam is better than them.

Having the best players playing for Wigan is the way it should be.

Sign a prop and to go alongside him and we are laughing.

There are numerous exceptions under the salary cap rule - I seem to remember IL once saying that SOL doesn't count on the salary cap for two reasons: 1) 50% of your highest paid players wage doesn't count 2) 50 % of your longest serving players wage doesn't count - this meant SOL's wage didn't count on the clubs salary cap figure. Now if SOL was to retire the 50% highest paid player allowance would be available to S Tomkins (subject to him being the highest paid player) whilst at least Bowen will be leaving at the end of the season? Not too sure there would be a salary cap issue here if SOL's retirement is an issue or if the ridiculous salary cap/exceptions rules have changed again.

Quote: I8pies "There are numerous exceptions under the salary cap rule - I seem to remember IL once saying that SOL doesn't count on the salary cap for two reasons I'm sorry but this is complete rubbish. 1) is just wrong. There is a dispensation (up to 100k) for producing players for international representation. Up to 10k per player for England and 5k for England Knights, which you might be thinking about? 2) I assume you're talking about the long player concession. Again this is capped at 50k and is 50% of salary for all players who have served 10 years or longer. (2 players earning 50k each would mean a 50k reduction. 2 players earning 101k would have 50k off. 1 player earning 250k has a 50k reduction.) www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/rules/i ... section=E1 The only chance this has of making sense on the cap is for the rules voted on in June to come in.

Quote: I8pies "There are numerous exceptions under the salary cap rule - I seem to remember IL once saying that SOL doesn't count on the salary cap for two reasons I'm sorry but this is complete rubbish. 1) is just wrong. There is a dispensation (up to 100k) for producing players for international representation. Up to 10k per player for England and 5k for England Knights, which you might be thinking about? 2) I assume you're talking about the long player concession. Again this is capped at 50k and is 50% of salary for all players who have served 10 years or longer. (2 players earning 50k each would mean a 50k reduction. 2 players earning 101k would have 50k off. 1 player earning 250k has a 50k reduction.) www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/rules/i ... section=E1 The only chance this has of making sense on the cap is for the rules voted on in June to come in.

I've heard from two different sources that he is currently talking to Claremont the French RU outfit and ourselves.
Hopefully the Claremont talks are a ruse to increase his salary discussions with IL.

It'd be strange to be homesick and then move to Claremont but it is only a couple of hours on a plane from Manchester I suppose.

He wants have a word with Scott Taylor and see how he handles his home sickness.

There's far better players in the NRL , that we should be looking at.

but would they come to us ???
also remember that SL is now at the lowest standard I have ever seen. the race to mediocrity has been won. in a season where we have been DREADFUL, we are only 1 point off 3rd.
We miss the ability Sam has to pull us out of the fire with a moment of brilliance.
Anyone in the NRL who also has that quality is unlikely to come over and would costs a pretty penny as well/

None have the passion or feeling for Wigan that Sam Tomkins does though and I doubt any would offer us what Tomkins could.

Also even with a marquee player rule hardly any and possibly none would be realistic.