I hope you are both right. Obviously i'd rather keep Sam. Assuming we need a replacement he would fit the bill perfectly. 2 year contract with either Tierney/Hampshire to replace him. (both may have done a season in NZ by then as well).

Taken from the Sydney Morning Herald 30th June.


"Wigan star fullback Sam Tomkins - who signed with the Warriors last week - will be wearing the No.1 jumper, forcing Kevin Locke into the mix for five-eighth; with Thomas Leuluai likely to shift to hooker.

Locke may be battling Carlos Tuimavave - yet to re-sign with the Warriors past this season - and recent Cowboys draftee Chad Townsend for the five-eighth's spot.

If not, Locke will be battling it out with Vatuvei, Laumape and Glen Fisiiahi for the No.2 and 5 jumpers. Vatuvei sees the dilemma as a good thing for the club".

There is a lot of talk about this on a NZ Warriors forum, but no official announcement.

Maybe Radlinski made the trip to NZ last week to exchange contracts as well as ideas.

Great publicity for the sport and he seems like a great lad, although he isn't a local Wigan lad.

Do you mean Lockes contract ?

He won't be a player swap candidate , he's a free agent now well 2014 , Matt Elliot said he's staying but no contract has been signed. If Radlinski could convince him to come over , or Lockes unhappy ( there are those rumors as you probably know ) then he is one player where nothing is standing in Wigans way other than Locke himself really.

I know I talked about Hurrell as a young player on the other thread ( I removed the post about the kid who started playing rugby 3 years ago, because i forget to you all i might have been talking rubish ) but there's one guy who was bouncing in and out of first grade developing , Kolpak player etc....

Sunday Hurrell ran 200mtrs plus , made eighteen takles, an intercept , and scored the winning try against the Brisbane Broncos.

If we can coach the likes of Hurrell to mark Hodges then Sonny Bill and Jennings in a fortnight of games where he makes 37 tackles and missed two.....then there are some good things at the NZ club.

If you want to know about which border players / folk you might not of heard of that are really special then
A poster called slaughterhouse is connected with the club. Phantom Locke is a Phd sports guy who posts rarely but he is in the thick of junior development.

Anything posted by those sorts of fellahs is worth reading on Junior players especially.

Another very Sound performance by Anthony Minichellio last night Roosters defeating Manly.

Is it true you have signed Mose Masoe ?

St Helen's have signed Masoe.

Good player? Heard he had a great game at the weekend.

Genuine hard nut , Monster of a human , Impact forward who does a lot of damage.

He and Ukuma Ta'ai had a head to head tough guy game at Mt Smart ( sorry for those who don't know that's the NZW home ground ) Ukuma had a rare Solid game for us, first time in watching Mosse I've seen him knocked flat.....In saying that he smiled like a boxer who has been floored...and kept it up for the rest of his time on the feild.

Opposition Forwards really do fear Mosse.

Last time I watched Mosse he came off the bench when the NZwarriors were getting their worst flogging in History ( six weeks ago ) and he is a big reason why the score blew out to the record 62-6 thrashing ( Massoe scored under the posts to top it off ).

Any Club would Sign Mosse in a flash in the form he is in this year , I'm interested....and heartened to see him go too the ESL instead of some of the bludgers.

The NZwarriors were very keen to get him , he didn't want to come ( has a history with this place ).

I've just started watching ESL coverage again ( Tomkins effect ) and I saw a Giants game , Eorl Crabtree bends the line in a simlar way to Mosse ( Crabtree is HUGE wow ).

Edit : Just looked at your team Roster , Lauaki is a better comparison , not sure how he goes around these days , Epalahame used to annoy NZW fans due to ill discipline.

Hi , Stillinthepast I haven't heard anything concrete. I'm not going to claim to have wink wink nod nod insider contacts at the Club in the vein of the Dean Bells etc, however , of our network of serious Club supporters there are known Posters ( I am an e-freind lol with one ) who are inside the Organisation and what they report is very sp and always accurate. As you can appreciate those friendships are built over years and based on trust.
More than happy to share anything I'm lucky enough to hear first hand. Most of what I know is based on Strong rumor / paying attention to the people who really are on the inside.
I will be at Club training this week and the Special presentation to members tomorrow evening NZ time. We've been asked to make presentations to the club as well, it will be interesting ( hopefully ) and there will be all the usual slick Marketing carry ons there as well I should imagine.

Most are expecting the Wigan Partnership to be at the of the forum.

On the Signing of young players , there are a heap of players here that we can't hold , and some of them frankly are clones of the other , it's a coin toss between who to keep and who to release ( Fullbacks Kevin Locke and Glen Fisiahi....Locke most have heard about....but Glen is showing himself to be a contender for outside back of the year.....Glen is the fastest player we have hands down ).

Using those two....when this partnership takes off ( It's being taken very seriously at this end by management that is fact, from my friend at the NZW , Staff are being told the shared Wigan think tank is part of their future as well ).Sam Tomkins will cause a log jam. He will also be your man on the ground here , I've been looking into Sam , his Aura will be the strongest selling point you could have sent this way to recruit some of our finest. As a role model for young lads In NZ right now , who might be wondering what all the fuss is about.....Tomkins would be without peer.

I will post some of my thoughts about why the New Zealand Warriors have something to offer Wigan in the partnership thread after tomorrows meeting , possibly if people are made aware of the evolution happening at NZ Warriors in the past couple of years , they will feel there could be benefits being partnered to the New Zealand Warriors experience.

Depends what you call a local lad, if you're 25, and you live in Milton Keynes for about 5 years, and Wigan for about 20 years, I'd call you a Wiganer.

we keep hearing that you are signing Greg Eden from Hull KR. how would you guys feel about that?

He would be a decent signing IMO, given our options. The problem for me is that he can be a liability in defense, and the wigan fans are likely to get on the back of anyone who isn't as safe as houses.

More interestingly I'd like to hear what the HKR fans think.