Don't go to yawnion Sam, Edgeley Park raining and muddy on a thursday night in February isn't the 'bright lights' of union.

As I said on the VT, a marquee player scheme needs to be brought in so rich clubs like yours can break the salary cap on a star player.

That photo of Lockers and Sinfield with the Challenge Cup might be the campest thing I've ever seen!

"There may be brashness in some of Tomkins' play but when we met this week I encountered no conceit, only an engaging, accommodating and driven sportsman. "

I think this has become more apparent this year. I'm actually growing to quite enjoy the cockiness of the kid. He reminds me of Naseem Hamed, lots of quite brash, cocky behaviour, but with the skills to back it up. I think he's astute enough to realise that an angry opponent is one who makes mistakes too.

I had to laugh last week when he taunted Kearney as he went in for a try. Kearney tried to clobber him after he put the ball down, but he couldn't even catch him to do that.

I hope the kid has a mysterious off day tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he goes against the Aussies this year.

I'm not to be honest. Unless there's been a huge change in emphasis in England's style, i.e. five one-out drives and a crap kick, we won't see anything close to resembling the Sam Tomkins we've seen in a Wigan shirt this season. Which is a massive shame. Tomkins is good enough to build an entire attacking structure around, which is pretty much what Wigan have done because we have a coach that recognises his ability. I doubt McBanana has either the ability or knowledge to do the same

Wrong, it's the second campest thing ever, just look at the ISC adverts on the right of your screen and the picture of Jamie Peacock is the campest thing ever.

Couldn't agree more... it is obvious from the article that ultimately he wants some "Celebrity Status" so if to keep him we have to put him on A question of sport every week then IMO thats what we need to do.. We need to give him little reason to go and many reasons to stay.. My enjoyment depends on it!!!

Agreed. We’ll get steamrolled in all the games bar the welsh one, Tomkins will get the blame and wire/saints fans will deem him to be ... because you’re not a good player if you can’t score 5 tries in a game against Australia apparently.

But I imagine he’d cut England to bits if he was Australia’s #1 though

There is little doubt in my mind that Sam will eventually go to Rugby Union.

Reasons,
1) He will probably be able to earn at least double what he can playing Rugby League and will become a millionaire

2) He could get International recognition for his talent, by playing in front of up to 80,000 spectators abut six times a year.

And do you know what, I wouldn't blame him.
From the RL board, to the paying spectators we all share the blame, particularly the International game.

Not long ago we were playing in front of 50,000 and 60,000 crowds. We had scheduled tours. Sadly the Superleague has seen the International game become a non entity. Ask most fans if they would rather see England /GB win an International series or their club win Superleague? They have voted with their feet.


Then we have the salary cap which was supposed to make the game more competitive, I don't think it is but one thing is certain we are not producing the quality we did (for whatever reason)

When we were in Australia for the 2008 World Cup I put these points forward and stated that you could have competitive match between two two amateur teams (St. Pats v St. Judes for example) but the standard wouldn't be as good.

The other sad thing is that if Sam does go to Rugby Union than there will be some spectators actually pleased.
Sad isn't it?

It's pathetic. The RFL should start using the profits they make to secure players like Sam, Roby, Graham and put them on central contracts. Write into their central contract that they are the faces of English RL and they have to do promo work to forward the game.

Mark my words, It's already more or less agreed. A lot sooner than what people on here think too. Look out for Joel to join him too.

deffo agree with the international part of your post , i fondly remember the ashes against the green & golds or even the world cup final at wembley with a crowd of 90k , these games was the highlight of the season

i dont think it all boils down to money , like sam says in his interview union stars are household names and most people outside of the rugby league family dont recognise our star players

At the end of the day, Sam isn't thick .. He knows he is the star turn of the whole league - whatever he says in NATIONAL papers, the RFL will surely read and take note..

He might not actually ever want to go to the dark side - he literally just might want to stick with Wigan his whole life, like Radders.

He obviously understands the need for healthy debate within the media about either code and that way, increase the profile of the sport not only in the 'home counties' but further afield.

That's the point of the using the media anyway - of course, the RFL will probably take the whole article literally and just ignore it.

There will be some speccies pleased if he goes to Union and there will be some SL chairmen who will be more than pleased.
They will feel that their clubs can become more competitive with Wigan and it won't have cost them a penny or an ounce of effort.
The tail wags the dog in SL!

What we need is our star plays to stay and help promote the game not jumping ship. It grates me that Nigel Wood and Richard Lewis seem like very intelligent blokes when it comes to running the game but they need to outsource the publicising of the game to a marketing company, someone with contacts.

Forget putting Sam on Question of Sport nobody watches it anymore its the most outdated programme on TV and it makes me cringe when they try to liven it up with those daft tasks they do. All they do is ask an unknown sportsperson a pi55 easy question on their sport.

Get Sam on Soccer AM, The One Show, Blue Peter, etc

Commission a TV show like 'Up and Under' showing behind the scenes runnning of a club etc, funny stories and stuff and showing daft celebrations after a cup win. If Peter Andre can get a TV show showing him go to the shops, change his tyres and generally about and have lots of fans and maximum publicity then so can we.

I don't know why people bother with Union, would you ever experience atmosphere at games in Union? Like at Warrington in the Semi Final? I doubt it, the closest thing you get to atmosphere at Union games is 80,000 fat old farts wearing cotton trader rugger jerseys with a cardy around their shoulders with a big wobbly chin waving a glass of gin and called Jeremy/Rupert/Giles singing 'Swing low sweet chariot'.

Whos with me?