On the original question, yes, it is a worry. There are a number of good three-quarters who might make a name for themselves this year (Watkins, McGillvary, Jones-Bishop, Lawrence) and Jones-Bishop looks the most exciting of them. He certainly looks better than Chris Ashton did at a similar stage in his career. So RU will definitely be interested, hence this week's 4-year contract.

Although clearly the RU should actually recruit JJB's dad in a "long-term development" role.

Wrong as usual Billy boy

Didn't Ashton leave for Union when he was 19? Ben Jones-Bishop is already 22.

Give me the multitude of examples with regards to RL to RU contract breaks? I really cant think of many at all

If anything i can give you many examples of ex RL players coming back to league before their contract is up!

As our chairman said we spend far too long talking about rugby union, when in rality there is little reason to do so

There inter-bred that part of the world so who knows

I'm not sure whether you'd regard Ashton posing in his new RU shirt half way through his last season with us as a contract break, but it sure felt like it.

Hardly a multitude, I know. But painful enough.

If you don't want to talk about the RU threat to RL then I suppose the trick is not to post on threads concerned with it.

not at all???? i said i thought you would muller bradford? hows that trollin?

Shouldn't you be starting this thread about Sam Tomkins then? Why BJB?

I said this on another thread, but I might as well mention it here as well while it's relevant ...

I think Sam's slightly eccentric style has protected us a little bit from Union interest. He darts around a lot, he scoots between the tackles (sometimes like a chicken with no head, admittedly), which tends to work very well in League but wouldn't be much use in Union. Also, I don't think Sam's got the size to play in Union's outside backs, and these are the types of players they mainly tend to look for from RL - athletic wide-runners. (He also lacks the rep for kicking and distribution that would make him attractive as a Union half). We often say this about potential converts: "I don't know where they'd play him." But I think that applies to Sam Tomkins more than most (at least I hope it does). BJB, on the other hand, seems to fit the bill perfectly in that he's got size, pace, good hands and is an all-round excellent flank attacker.

I'm sure BJB's contract will keep him at Leeds for the time being, but I reckon he'll be one of the game's star names by the end of this season, and that's when Union will start to take note. Even as the supporter of a rival club to Leeds, I'd be more than happy to see some kind of facility put into place whereby BJB was able to earn above and beyond the Salary Cap in order to keep him in our game permanently. And the same goes for others of our marquee players.

(The other thing is that Sam is very settled at Wigan because of the family connection. Of course, that doesn't mean he won't get itchy feet at some point, but at present he doesn't want to be anywhere but with his two brothers).