And highly likely, selection for the England train-on squad is included in Joel's contract. At least, this was Stevo's view when he was interviewed on telly about Kyle Eastmond's defection.

I for one don't give a monkey's what the impact is on other clubs - including my own. I don't care what deals have been done, and whether they benefit wigan in particular. Bottom line is that Sam Tomkins is a very good player (far better than Ashton will ever be), and I'm glad Wigan have been able to keep him. Until we become like the NRL and produce the equivalent player every year or so, we desperately need to keep those we do produce to prevent RL being seen entirely as a feeder for RU.

Bottom line lis that we have too many small clubs in SL, who shouldn't call the shots for the clubs capable of spending more. We need a salary cap to stop teams bankrupting themselves, but not at the expense of the game as a whole. If RU didn't exist then I'd have a different view, but it does, it threatens our sport, and the clubs with money need to be able to defend themselves.

Spot on. It is for that reason we need a 10 team comp with higher quality sides being able to spend more. Give sky however many games they want for the biggest tv deal. Lets get the best players playing our sport.

Like I said on an earlier post, spending to the cap should be one of the criteria on the franchise application.

that's pretty much spot on.

Agreed. 100%.

Totally agree. I'd be amazed if the likes of Lomax, Hall and Jones-Bishop weren't already on RU's radar. Special talents who we now have a much better chance of keeping.

Well said mate 100% correct

The only problem I would have with this is if it applied solely to Tomkins, making whatever concessions to reality the RFL have made, available to all clubs is integral to the integrity of the competition.

Other than that the RFL are sadly lagging behind on this and it is sad we have needed their hand to be forced. We should just be looking to keep what we have but bring in the best of what others have.

Agreed, we need to make this available to other clubs to prevent raids from Union. There are some excellent young players about and every club needs the ability to protect them from Union.

I am less worried about the NRL as they remain in our code but it would be a tragedy to lose them from the sport altogether.

Certainly I wouldn't be happy if RU came looking for our players. And from my teams point of view (Leeds) we would benefit well from this central pool, but isn't exactly fair and level playing field for all and would make a bit of a joke of salary cap. Might was well just raise the cap

If the cap were just raised you could guarantee the money would find its way to into the pockets of some average overseas players. At least this way it goes to home grown talent.

It also ought to make it easier for smaller clubs to keep their own, home grown, star players because if say a player form Cas left for Wigan then he would not be eligible for the "Sam Tomkins deal" because Wigan didn't produce him.

The only problem for smaller clubs is if they have no home grown star players because they have a rubbish youth set up. And lets fact it we are into the 2nd round of franchises already and have had the flat rate cap for even longer so they have no excuse to be lagging behind in this department. So if they are disadvantaged because they have no eligible players, who's fault is that?

Exactly. I'm so tired of clubs who use innovative methods to grow their crowds, develop new income streams and attract and recruit lots of local young talent being accused of making things hard for other clubs. Professional sport is a competition, it is not about fairness or level playing fields. It's about time some of these smaller clubs, whose failures seem to have dictated the direction of the British game in the last 10 years, were reminded that with inclusion in SL there is a responsibility to contribute to the game's wealth.

couldnt agree more with that

Decent article on the man himself. www.nzherald.co.nz/league/news/a ... um=twitter

Decent article on the man himself. www.nzherald.co.nz/league/news/a ... um=twitter