I've heard this sort of stuff numerous times from clubs whose players just don't seem attractive to Rugby Union. Saints used to say the same thing, but the threat to Eastmond is suddenly concentrating certain of their minds.

To start with, we can't compete with Union when it exercises its full financial muscle. Everyone knows that, but we can - as Deano says more eloquently than I do - make it more difficult for agents like Frank Endacott to try and convince their young players that RL is skint and that RU is all cakes and ale.

Not all of these lads want to go to RU. It may just be a matter of tipping the scales a little in our favour. Even if we can't make them overnight millionaires, being able to offer them good, lucrative contracts might be enough to keep them.

But don't be telling us that we haven't lost quality youngsters. Ashton was a very exciting prospect and he'll never now come back. During all the success we've had this year, most have already forgotten Wigan's loss of Ian Thornley. Personally, I don't think he'll be as big a miss as Ashton, but now we'll never know. And he won't be the last.

It's all very well for someone at Warrington to say that we're bleating about nothing, but RU scouts - particularly from Sale, who seem to have latched onto the idea that signing Wigan's kids is the only thing that will save them from oblivion - are circling us all the time. And I mean ALL the time. They're even trying to poach our fans - that's how desperate they are, but they've still got more money to splash around than us, because we're not allowed to spend all the money we've got.

I don't see how anyone who claims to be an RL fan can seriously keep on pretending that RU's endless harassment of young RL players, whose self-interested agents will never see beyond the end of the next big payday, is harmless to our game.

I did state that the RFL and the clubs should do something to protect these players. I am not happy about the time and effort we put into these players for them to sod off. However the money isn't there to compete with the RFU its not and other than tieing these kids down and making them play rugby league theres nothing you can do if they want the money and leave.

I'm not suggesting that there will be another player as talanted as Sam Tomkins, but you can't live in the fear that if these players leave its the end of British Rugby League, because its not, its a bumb but not the end. No player is bigger than the sport, and if a player ever did become bigger than the sport, i would want them out anyway.

I didn't protend it didn't happen either, I quite clearly stated that it does and we should try and stop it.

I'm not living in cloud cookoo land I'm living in the times of modern sport, were loyalty by players and most definately agents are 0 and were players have the power.
I am a Blackburn rovers fan as well as a massive wigan rugby league fan and if I had a pound for everytime a promising players leaves for a bigger club i'd be driving a austin martin. To the players its a job and they want to make money as much as they can, yes we need to make league look more attractive to make them stay but Union has the money and money does talk, loudly.

Let me ask you if you did all your training and started your working life at superdrug and 3 years later boots came along and offered you more money for the same job (if not easier) would you stay loyal to superdrug? if so your a better man than most, because i'd say at least 90% of people would leave for boots.

At the end of the day, the RFL can still and should do more than they currently are doing. To just sit back and say "we can't do anything to stop it" is spineless defeatism.

Warrington players have been approached by rugby union clubs, Ben Harrison for one dismissed them as he is looked after at Warrington. It is just as certain that the Evans brothers who originate from South Wales will also have attracted interest however again Warrington have addressed that threat and have tied them to long contracts.

I see you didn't bother to list all the players Super Leagie has lost to RU in the last 24 months. Here's a bit of news for you - they aren't that interested, they have their own academies.



I think you will find that the vast majority of Super League clubs, including Wigan, are already spend MORE than they've got.

When the Aussie Schools rugby union team played in the north west earlier this year how many SL clubs went to watch to try and spot any talent?

If you want to compete then you need to do so. You like to call Warrington yet they are a club with a number of young players signed from a rugby union background including players recruited as schoolboys from South Wales. Whinging will get nobody anywhere and considering the history of poaching players for over 100 years from rugby union it is rather pathetic. It is up to clubs to be proactive, the RFL is going to be under severe financial pressure in the upcoming years with the withdrawal of all central government funding, they will not have a penny to give to players in competition to rugby union contracts.

You're too kind!

It hardly matters. As you've seen, all kinds of excuses are still being given as to why the RFL should not do anything to keep our young talent in the game.

Thats why sam is on a deal until the end of 2014, he proved himself in 2009 and got a contract

What gets my goat is players in the youth side saying i want this, i want that when they have not proved themselves and are not even next in line for the first team

Other superleague clubs may have to compete with th dark side for some of wigans youth production line but thats not our problem, you cant keep everyone

At the end of the day we can't keep all our young talent and sometimes it may be better for us (as Wigan not RL) to let them go to Union (see Huddersfields win at the DW) However, it is certainly detrimental to the sport as a whole and the RFL should do something to help stop it.

This has nothing to do with Eastmond being a target for RU.
I said exactly the same when Chris Ashton went to union.
I know there are quite a few Saints fans who feel the same as me.
I don't want the likes of Sam Tomkins going to union(I am not saying he will).
My point is all RL clubs and the RFL have to do something to stop this from happening.

Agree totally but 'Fielding' annoys me more.

Double post

Wigan could easily have paid Ashton that contract if they wanted to, they chose to offer him peanuts. Ashton signed for Northampton in March 2007. In the following off season Wigan then signed Andy Coley, Richie Mathers, George Carmont and Karl Pryce, with Tim Smith and Cameron Phelps signing mid-season.

Are you seriously suggesting that had Ashton been offered the salaries of Pryce/Smith/Phelps/Mathers combined (all of whom were flops or struggled to get game time) he'd have left for the money? Wigan made a commercial decision not to offer Ashton more than they thought he was worth.

When union were sniffing around Eastmond, Saints considered him worthy of big enough money to get him to sign a new deal. Wigan didn't with Ashton.

No doubt union will come sniffing around Eastmond again at the end of next season and Saints will have another decision to make. If Saints say they can't compete then go and sign the likes of Smith/Pryce/Phelps/Mathers to play in our reserves, I'll be a little bit miffed.

You're missing the point here. Without the salary cap Wigan could have signed those players as well as Ashton but because offering Ashton the same as Union did would mean not getting those other players they didnt because it would be silly to have 1 player instead of many. Its like Buying one CD at £9 when its 2 for £10.