he was a regular for St Helens......i call that realising your potential

How sad that a young lad who learned all his rugby at Wigan went on to play his rugby at top class teams like Saints and Bradford should slag off the game that has give him a good living for a good number of years, he will find out that working for a living 9-5 is better than full time R.L.Sorry Bryn you are livin in a dream world if you think that!!!

It is sad, but you're missing the point. Bryn is right that RL doesn't offer a brilliant career for many players. If you're Sam Tomkins you can make very good money but as a more ordinary player like Bryn the rewards aren't massive and it is a short career. You don't make enough money to be set up for life. When you add in the risk of financial failure of clubs it's not an amazing option. The idea that Bryn is wrong because he thinks he can find a more sustainable career where he will be better treated is interesting. I don't know his personal circumstances, qualifications etc, he may well be right that there are better financial options, particularly in the long term and I certainly wouldn't blame him for wanting to find a better employer than the Bulls...

On pay generally, the failure to raise the SC in line with wages inflation means that players are already paid c40% less in real terms than they were at the outset of SL. Players as a whole have been badly treated in the SL era. If this carries on then we will see many more players dropping out of RL or not getting involved in the first place. Financial mismanagement by and lack of vision of the RL and club owners means that the game is heading for a semi-pro future, with a quality of competition nearer the French domestic RL than SL ten years ago.

Wrong on so many levels - he owes the game nothing, he has played the game at the top level but has to decide what is best for his future,after all how long has he got playing top level rugby and earning a reasonable wage - 6 years possibly injury permitting? It is also likely that he would not get another contract at a top club so his earning potential would go down anyway over time. If he has the option to take a job outside the game which will pay he a decent salary long after he would have retired from RL then he has the right to make that choice - after all he has to look after himself and family (if he has one) first. He seems to have been a player who has given 100% wherever he has played and conducted himself in a professional manner (I make no comments on his ability that is not relevant)

Also his comments in the press have not been slagging off as far as I can see - they have been truthful and level headed, I for one wish him luck, anyone who plays such a hard game deserves respect for that.

I'm sorry but some comments are off here people are acting like he's been forced to leave he could well play another 6-8 years of rugby then take the path he is now

Oh he's got a plastering job in the us big deal he could save cash up and open his own business when he does finish, He's attacked the game cause lets face it over the last couple of years he's been passed around from club to club when he wanted to stay with us

I wish him all the best

If the sport is going to get anywhere we need to attract a wider range of talented athlete beyond the limited areas of Wigan, Featherstone etc. and with a choice of career to choose from including football, RU, athletics, boxing etc which all pay better money to the top and middle employees than RL we will continue to find ourselves with a diminishing talent pool if RL isn't perceived as a good career choice for the aspiring athlete.

what a strange post,

perhaps working a 9-5 won't be as exciting or as enjoyable as playing rugby for a living, but if he's found a profession which will sustain him for the rest of his life then he should be applauded for doing so. many in the game I dare say wouldn't have the bottle to do the same thing, good luck to Bryn

But rugby League doesn't work beyond the north of England

Look at Quins they have Union and Football around them they wont bring in big crowds, the only reason the talent comes from these areas is cause we are passionate about the sport from being young just like young kids down south they play football from being young

What a load of tosh.

RL as a professional sport should easily be offering wages to it's top league players that are well above normal private sector salaries.

It can't do that because of the inept attitude of the people running our sport.

The only reason Sam earns a good living is because Wigan had to go the extra mile to persuade the RFL that special measures were needed in order to keep him. So the message going out to the game's youth now is: "You can make a lot of money in this game - providing: a) you turn out to be a really, really good player; and b) your club chairman is able to convince the RFL that you should be a special case."

It kind of makes that golden goose of 'a lucrative career in sport' seem that much further away.

Now in Union, on the other hand ... you can earn a lot more, a lot more quickly, and for doing a whole lot less.

That's why we should be looking at the young talent in London and Wales who are now becoming league players first and foremost and paying them a decent wage and offering good career prospects.

Or we could just give up.

If you are saying the cap should increase or have no cap i agree but you will have teams on their asses that will be against this saying stuff like 'oh they will chuck big bucks at our best players' but the truth is it happens now with the cap not the cash side but if your playing at Cas and Wigan,Leeds or Saints offer you the same ££ to play for them your not going to turn this down are you?

Will Bryn earn more cash doing what he plans? Maybe but i tell you what he will earn it working 7 days a week none stop players these days train 5 days a week for 5 hours a day on average they get days off and they get a good 3 months break in the off season it's a very good lifestyle which i would put my house on he will miss 12 months down the line

Not all teams can afford it though if you get a scout from one of the big clubs go looking there might be decent players but they compare them to the talent up here when a smaller club would sign them and they could turn into a good player with the right coaching

I wouldn't give up i just think the rfl do a **** poor job of running our sport and i'm taking lol bad

The people at fault here are the RL marketing team.

The on field product is first class. The RFL marketing department fifth class.

Sadly the view of RL as an "inferior" product runs deep.

On London radio last month the commentator compared the Paralympics to the RL World Cup whilst the standard Olympics was the RU World Cup. In fairness to him he was actually using the analagy to promote the Paralympics, but in truth it goes to show the perception of RL in this country.

His talent compared to the likes of say a Lima or a Morely has got nothing to do with it. He is not retiring because he isn't good enough fior SL - he is. The fact it isn't a regular occurrance is not relevant either.

The fact it has happened at all is cause for concern. I dare say the RFL will consider it a one off and brush any concerns under the carpet but don't you think it at least a bit strange that a sport that gets BBC prime time coverage for the CC and is a major part of Sky Sports loses a player to a plastering job?

If another star player had gone to RU on mega-bucks we would all be saying how can we compete with that. What this says is the sport isn't able to offer a level of wages to its regular professional players that can compete with pretty ordinary careers outside of sport. I think that is a very different scenario and more concerning than being outbid by RU or NRL clubs for the likes of Sam T or whoever.