Tomkins may have been brought in prior to the rule but no reason why they can't make him the marquee player. His contract will be a very good one I'm sure and if they can cut that back to just £100k officially on the salary cap books then that will aid Wigan immensely to fit other players in that cap.

Whilst it's good that the game is trying to compete with the NRL, lets just swallow it and accept it that we never will. The money paid to players over there where the crowd numbers are far far far superior to what we have is always going to be a telling factor. But rugby (both codes) is Australia's main sporting event and we will never be able to compete with the salary's there in the same way Australia's football league teams won't be able to compete with the salary's that our Premier League teams pay either for exactly the same reason.

If we are to make our game better and try and close the gap, lets introduce this marquee ruling but for any team that uses it has to pay £100,000 into grass roots rugby in their specific rural area's to improve the game and facilities for the kids at a young age who eventually may well appear in a Super League shirt for one of the top teams.

Players and clubs.

Marquee Player Funding Approved yet SL clubs scrap the A teams because they cant fund them its a complete farce all this will do is further restrict youth development and we will see ageing Aussies coming here for one last pay day
All SL clubs should have to fund and run an A team the dual reg system is a farce

Completely agree with the last poster. It is very short sighted and as a result the game will contract rather than expand in this country. The national team will also as a result become even weaker due to home grown talent not being developed and therefore not compete with Australia and New Zealand.

Reserve Grade or 'A' team rugby should be compulsory for SL clubs. If they don't have the finances to support that then they go into Championship.

I'm not wholly against the concept of the marquee player, it is up to the clubs who they waste their money on. It would be better balanced though by giving a 50% discount on the value of home grown players up to a set age in the cap.

the short term signing of players like joey johns was good for the 2-3 games he played for wire.., but no star nrl/origin players are going to come to sl and leave top flight footy behind for a few pounds