Two words, Matty Russell

I would prefer more words than this.

As a fan of Tomkins as a player I'd be happy to see him go over to the NRL and try to make a name for himself there. If he has ambitions to become one of the best players in the world then really he has to go there and go to the next level and I'm pretty sure he'll do that.

We want to keep the best players in our game so I'd be glad if he didn't switch codes. It would be such a waste of his talents in a sport where running with the ball is quite restricted.

Hopefully if he does leave in two years time then we'll have a ready made replacement in Matty Russell, Jack Murphy, Lewis Tierney or Ryan Hampshire.

There's a real possibility he will be the best player in the history of English RL so not to test himself over there would be madness. I will be gutted to see him leave Wigan but I will wish him all the best because he deserves the opportunity. Plus if the fans and the club are gracious in letting him go he will probably come back to us having spent 2-3 years in the NRL (remember after 3 years he would still only be 28!) and he would tear up SL even more I imagine. Loyalty is often rewarded and our loyalty to him and his wishes will pay dividends when he comes back. I doubt he will stay more than 1 contract over there lets just hope he doesn't sign about 5 years! Ha

Plus he loves this club so I doubt he will leave with us not having adequate cover for him.

Will an NRL team pay £600,000+ to buy out his contract? they have an abundance of quality backs in the NRL and never seem to spend money on transfers so I wouldn't say him leaving to the NRL would be as straight forward as it seems.

What about a two year player exchange deal with NZ Warriors? We are assuming that Sam will enjoy the life downunder, let's not forget that he is a home bird.

They wouldn't need to.

They could send us that Leuluai lad, he looks a good prospect!

How would Sam get out of the extra 2 years Sam he would be contracted to Wigan for?

Released, trigger the clause he's clearly got in place hence the 3/5 yr different terms quoted when he signed it.

I would be stunned if Sam decided to stay at Wigan beyond 2 years, so to that extent it's hardly a shock.

I am not up to speed on the sort of money the NRL can offer though.

If Sam went to RU he would be a millionaire within a year.

I doubt IL would allow Sam to leave for free when he is contractually obliged to play for Wigan for the next two seasons.

I strongly disagree he would have to move to French Rugby Union to earn any thing near one million pounds the raise in the Aviva Premiership salary cap next year to £4.5 million would mean the average player in a 32 man squad would receive £140,625.

As he will be successful in either side of the sport of Rugby it would be far better for Wigan & League as a whole if he chose to go to the NRL, At least being a success in NRL still means that by the time he is 29 or 30 he can still come back to Wigan if both parties wanted the move, Whereas success in Union means televisual appearences and borderline stardom with little or no chance of a return to League or Wigan. So as gutted as I would be to lose him to NRL i'd wish him every success with the knowledge that he would tear it up over there plus we can still watch him on telly and when he comes back for Internationals with Matty Russell or Jack Murphy or Lewis Tierney ready to step into the breach.

Ridiculous. We want the best players here not in the NRL or RU. It will never get any better if we adopt your attitude. We should be unashamedly selfish about this.

It's a non-article anyway. Player reaches period in his contract where he can exercise his options so its an article about that. This is news because...?