I think RU fans are similar to Cricket fans which I include myself in. I go to England cricket matches but I have never been to a domestic match. Why? Because its boring and nonnof the so called stars or top players play in these games. I find England RU and England Cricket tend to contract the players to the international side more so than clubs. England RU is more of a club ran organisation rather than an international team.

When England take on the Kangaroos and Kiwis in the 4 Nations later this year in Australia, Burgess will be playing for Bath, so is it money or love of playing for his country ?

for me its no coincidence that he has signed a 3 year contract, they have a world cup, olympic 7's, Lions Test all coming up in the next 3 years and not to forget they have 6 nations every year. If transitions as he should he will become famous in the uk and will go back to sydney its clearly a handshake deal rusty has agreed to.

The question is be asking myself if I were Sam Burgess would be

"Do I want to be half recognised as a minor sporting celebrity e.g Keiron Bracken, Darren Gough, Phil Tuffnell and appear on crap reality TV shows as way of earning more money once I retire or do I want to be recognised as an immortal/legend in the sport that gave me all the opportunities available to me and the sport I love?"

You shouldn't just make a decision based on purely the financial benefit otherwise your doing it for the wrong reason.

An old bloke once said to me " find a job that you love and you'll never have to 'work' a day in your life again.

And if I were Sam and Rugby Union asked me to sign I'd say "I'd rather suck John Hopoates fingers"

He won't need to work when his RL playing days are over, he's on enough money now to be set for life when he stops playing asking as he invests it either in a business, shares, bonds, houses, etc

That is the real issue facing RL in the UK now. RFL needs to allow clubs to bring in 1 player exempt from the cap with the club having proof it can pay the wages for that season without going bust. 4 or 5 clubs are in the position to do this including us. IL does not want to increase the cap but he is not a poor man by a long way. Tight maybe but not stupid.

But this is the problem we are not playing by the top sides rules we are playing by the teams mid table and lower. We pay what they can afford to keep up with and we lose too many good players to RU and NRL.

Could you imagine the interest of SBW - Salford, Sam Tomkins - Wigan, James Graham - Saints with both Leeds and Giants taking a player from the NRL. Way more publicity and a better competition. But as i said SL is played at the financial level of Widnes, Bradford, Hull KR etc. Unless they get the house in order SL will be the same as it is now in 10 years time.

Let the richer clubs get 1 exempt from NRL and get 2 exempt from the cap if they are trained by the clubs as juniors onwards and then bring in a 2 million cap. The clubs who can not afford the 1.6 million now would be in the same boat as they are now struggling. But it would give the top sides a chance to stop the players leaving for more money. Its not about the challenge if that was true then why did players like Peacock, Cunningham, Long etc not to go the NRL when it was obviously a better competition. RFL needs to wake up.

I just think the cap should be scrapped all together. The only cap should be on imports in order to promote the youth systems at each club. Big mouth he has but Marwan has a point - let the clubs pay the players what is affordable. Sod those who can't keep up.

I'm not sure if its been mentioned but on sky sports it says the details about the 4nations are to be released soon, also plans are in place to have a british lion tour in 2016......maybe the rfl are finally starting to listen to the fans afterall?

Or maybe they've just realised they are staring into an abyss. If so, it's about time.

Most of the points are well made on here but I'd love to see the workings of how Union and League go about putting in the foundations for success.

Sam Burgess may very well be moving for the money. However, it would not be too radical to suggest he might very well be doing it because England RU have a much greater chance of international success in an important tournament (e.g. World Cup).

Some have mentioned scrapping the Salary Cap and allowing endorsements/central funding. Would that make much difference? This is a game whose elite league in GB struggled to replace Engage with a title sponsor and most of the club's, even the bigger ones, don't have national or internationally recognised companies investing. The games finances are precarious at club level for several teams and the rising of the Salary cap would distort the league.

Another point well made was the lack of interest in the Aviva Premiership in terms of attendances. For a game that can virtually guarantee a sellout at Twickenham for international's it doesn't get football crowds for its domestic game. If we follow the central contract route we may improve internationally but it will be to the detriment to the Super League, which is really the main interest for RL fans in the UK.

We need an approach where we promote the areas of the heartlands and give as much money, infrastructure & communication as possible. We need more ex-players involved in the development of players, not for one club, but as a central RFL pool - a centre of excellence similar to Wigan' s Central Park but on a greater scale. The club's keep their academies and developmental areas and offer advice, coaching, scouting etc to help maximise potential.

The game needs selling at grassroots level with some level of confidence and security, whilst putting in real work on finding potential areas of development beyond the heartlands with investment from local authorities and businesses for local clubs to set up and links with Championship and SL clubs to offer a breakthrough scheme for players.

All of this can be offered to sponsors bigger than we currently have as a community, healthy sport with the potential to earn money.

This is being done I'm sure, but to what extent I'd love to know.

The problem doesn't just lie with the lower clubs. Our own chairman has publicly stated his opposition to raising the cap.

RU gives a great deal to top level players once they have retired, you don't see many skint top level international RU players. RL hasn't solved the life after Rugby conundrum. RU also identifies potential top level talent and nurtures it into international players, they want to win the RU World Cup and start working on it years out.

There is one other point I would like to make about the RL stars, Sam Tomkins was Boo'd by a section of England fans while on England duty, the Swansea welsh RU fans don't boo Jamie Roberts when he is playing for wales, RL can be a bit tribal and self interested (if you think I'm talking rubbish look at the threads on Sam Tomkins and some of the comments about him leaving for NZ).

I'm a convert to RL, it's great to watch and twice a year has a big show, the club games are more exiting and interesting and it a good day out with the kids, but as an international sport it's rubbish.

But I'm still coaching union to kids and I still enjoy the six nations and autumn internationals.
They are great days out, with a lots of skills on offer. Cardiff, Dublin and Edinburgh are great places to visit and the crowds tend to be ordinary working guys, not the hoorays portrayed on here.
Oh and I'm scottish so it isn't about winning either

Yeah, the evidence is all over the telly on Saturday afternoons - especially on the evening news, when the best highlights they can come up with are Owen Farrell's latest 10 penalties. Great use of a kid who was once a real rugby talent.

As for the bit about them wanting to win the RU World Cup. Cool, fine ... that makes it all okay. We, on the other hand, never want to win anything.