i think ultimatly he will go back to his Birthplace club. The mighty Wire. Money talks and we have the mega rich Simon Moran-avich.

Or maybe he will stay with his boyhood team

Birthplace club? Is Moran planning to relocate the Wolfs franchise to Milton Keynes? They have a fantastic stadium, it would be a huge step up for the Wolfs to move to a ground like that from the cheap, flatpack HJ.

Bold move, though while Wire might be a small club with a poor track record in recent decades many of their fans would be against it, I'd have thought?

Worryingly, I think that the Union brigade will see Sam as being very suitable for their game, as he will be seen as a superior version of Ashton - who has been given mystical status for being able to score tries in a game where they are pretty rare. His spectacular scores for Wigan will be like shiny silver to a Rugby Union magpie - financial gain and being able to pull on his country's jersey without being booed might just swing it!

If our international game had a higher profile and if it meant something then I don't think there would be any question about him staying. Our international game doesn't even have an identity.

Must be tempting to go to Union, become a millionaire and play infront of 80k fans every other month. He would be a huge celeb!

We lose too many good players from this sport... how much better would RL be if we still had...

Sonny Bill Williams
Karmichael Hunt
Isreal Folau
Shontayne Hape
Stephen Myler
Lesley Vainikolo
Chris Ashton

..playing in our game... quite a few internationals there..

Or how about if we had never lost...

Jason Robinson
Andy Farrell
Brian Carney
Lee Smith
Iestyn Harris
Henry Paul
Mat Rogers
Wendell Sailor
Clinton Schifcofske
Timana Tahu
Lote Tuqiri
Barrie Jon Mather
Chev Walker
Craig Gower
Mark Gasnier

I know many of these players returned in time but thats still a lot of talent to lose. Our player pool is small enough as it is, we MUST keep our talent.

I would hate to lose Sam Tomkins from RL just as much as I hated seeing SBW leave etc.

Sam will be at Wigan for some time to come. The danger period will be when he's done 3 years under his present contract and other clubs, NRL or Union, come offering massive salaries together with massive financial incentives that Wigan and RL can't match.
Suppose Sam wanted to stay but then found out that the interested parties offered to make him the first £1m Rugby League transfer and also offer him a £m deal. Could Sam and Wigan RL refuse that kind of money?
As a sport we need to get more money into the clubs and into the RFL. There won't be many that will offer the kind of money that Sam will attract. If the RFL/SL get their financial act together they may be able to build up funds which could be made available to prevent players like Sam leaving us to other sports purely for the money and no other reason.

It would be a bit of a disaster to lose the biggest star we've produced in this country to Union.

The NRL, on the other hand, if he decided he wanted to try it, is a different matter. I think there are reasons other than money to try that out. I think it would make him an even better player, because he'd find the defences tougher to crack. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I think he could come up with some new tricks which would help us a lot at international level.

Obviously that depends on him wanting to up sticks and move to the other side of the world. I wouldn't, so I could understand him not wanting to.

Central contracts exist in RU and cricket, where they have been successful There is a massive issue not to be over-looked though:

Both those sports take international players away from their clubs for significant portions of the season, and the clubs expect this to be compensated in some way. We don't play enough international RL to justify it.

We play 1 test (if what we play can even be called that) a year during the season and a few in the off-season when the players aren't needed by their clubs anyway. England RU play 5 tests during the club season in the 6 Nations and usually 3 in the Autumn, if it isn't a World Cup year. England's cricketers will have been away from their counties for virtually the whole sumer between the Sri Lanka and India test series adn now a one-day series. Very different situations.

At 22 I think you can rule out a move to NRL just yet...too soon in my view. Well done on getting him signed to a 5 year deal.

I have gone from thinking what an upity little last year to thinking he now has the potential to be a RL great.

You can see him maturing this year which I presume is the influence of the coaching staff and the senior players around him.

In a perverse way I am looking forward to watching him on Saturday

Darts, he's the new Phil Taylor !!!!!!!!!!!!

On the RL Gerrumonside programme on Wish FM a week last Friday he was asked about NRL and he said he's really happy at Wigan with his mates and that Australia isn't something he's ever really dreamed about. He said it sounds strange because a lot of players say they've always dreamed of going to NRL but for him it never has been and he doesn't see himself there anytime soon. I got the impression he's happy where he is and hes got a family and group of friends who keep him grounded.

He could be the greatest EVER if he stayed at Wigan for his career, I honestly think that.

I honestly belive that with the right money he will stay at Wigan for the rest of his career, when it all comes down to it its not just about the Rugby its about his life over here, hes loving it.

Deary me ...........he was crap for you men...
I was stood in the Wigan end with my Pie eating chums for the game when Kev Penny ripped him two bum holes....he was hated by the boys brigades back then.....

as Soon As Tomkins would have arrived on the scene he'd have been shipped out to Huddesfield or Salford.

out of that List of which many you are simply having a laugh ..Stephen Myler....indeed...!!!!

Jason Robinson was the SPORTS biggest loss
Sony Bill was the NRL's biggest loss
and Isreal Folau is the games biggest kick in the nuts

but the rest were all replaced by just as good or better

--------------

He was born in Milton Keynes.

My god you are ignorant.

And blind as a bat.

To pretend that that list of casualties has been unimportant to the game beggars belief.

Has it ever occurred to the "we can always replace them" brigade that if we actually kept them their 'replacements' would still emerge, meaning that we'd have even more quality players in the competition.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, whatever you do - whether it's a central pot of additional funds, salary cap modification, changing the rules re. personal sponsorships or whatever, you MUST do something. Doing nothing is not an option.