If an NRL team can afford Sonny Bill Williams as rumoured with the TV money going up, then they can afford Tomkins. I hope for the sake of our game he chooses to stay in rugby league and not to join his brother.

To have half the England team in the best competition would be brilliant for us internationally.

Please name them, a cap for England is worth £30,000 and I wouldn't picture him playing for the national team in his first year, in terms of sponsorship I think a rookie to rugby union would struggle it's only players who have performed to a certain level on the international stage.

Union would use Sam as a high profile signing and arrange high sponsorship deals for him......

I hope he stays with us for ever but can understand why he would want to have a go in the NRL and if someone is going to knock your head off probably better to be near Bondi beach than Wigan pier.

Sam is THAT good he's half the England team? No wonder they'ld want him in the NRL

All of this is still speculation but the media are reporting it's a one year deal with the roosters he'll be competing as a boxer and after the season in the nrl will be playing in the Japanese rugby union league in the off season earning over £1 million Aussie dollars and then continuing his career else where.

I will still be gutted. The best player I have seen in week in week out.

Disaster for super league losing their best players as well.

If the internet was as strong in the 80s/90s as it is now i feel we would have been having the same conversation about mr Hanley. Great players come and go and it always seems like the end of the world when it happens, but new faces are always coming through and the conveyor belt will continue to produce equal if not better talent for many more years to come.
The king is dead....long live the king i say.

But you've just mentioned Hanley and then Sam as examples. That's quite a large gap in years.

Great players don't just come along every year.

Your lucky if you see a few in a lifetime.

Me too! The kids are already eyeing up potential care homes for me...

Name who?

Sam would be an absolute revelation in Union. The sponsorship will follow whoever can provide the most favourable exposure to a product. The fact that he would/would not be a rookie is irrelevant.

I don't think you appreciate just how well known Sam is. A few weeks ago I was in Pontypool, South Wales, when a group of 15 year olds were telling me just how good Sam is, that he is something special.

Now this is in South Wales. Hardly the RL heartland. It's a bit like a group of 15 year old Wiganers waxing lyrical about the talents of a 23 year old Ospreys RU player....hardly likely to happen is it?

Make absolutely no mistake, Sam would be an instant superstar in Union.

Spot on. All my Union mates at Uni hate league but will watch Wigan on sky just to see Tomkins. I had about 5 people text me after the Leeds away game saying how good he is. They couldn't name one other player from another team when I asked them.

Whilst I'd rather our best talent say in the Superleague, I can't help thinking that the odd big money move to the NRL will help our sport stave off rugby union's moves for our lads.
A number of league lads have had dissapointing moves to Union - Pryce, Walker, Smith & Eastmond for example. One can only assume they were after the big bucks of international money. With a pot of gold offered in Australia, I think it will help stave off that temptation to gamble on a code switch, knowing if they're as good as they think they are, there's good money in Aus for them without having to learn a new game.

And a better lifestyle than the North or the South of England.

It will hit Ellis hard when he arrives in Hull

Well, I'm afraid you'll not get me to buy into that one - i love where I live. A bit extra sun doesn't make it Eutopia.

I also can't imagine that the [ilifestyle[/i of someone like Sam Tomkins is anything to complain about.

I take your point though. He may also enjoy the heightened celebraty status he's get over there?