No doubt.
Just personally enjoyed watching him doing the business for Souths in the NRL the last few seasons.

It's a loss to the game but unless RL can up the ante and match RU and the NRL financially then it will continue to happen. Personally I can't believe sam tomkins went to NZ rather than English RU. With all of the commercial opportunities he'd have been sent up for life

Give it a few years.

Yup.
We forget they are still relatively young kids.
Seems like Sam B has been around for donkeys but surprisingly Tomkins is his elder.

nb.
Actually just googled that and I'm incorrect (I appreciate it doesn't happy very often ) but there is little between them.

@tombiggs11: Great news that @SamBurgess8 is heading to Bath.I paid the transfer fee as a leaving gift.Interesting that they want him to play tight head.

I know Tomkins is a controversial character but maybe he really does enjoy RL and prefers what after all is still a decent living to taking the money and swimming in the turd that is RU.

Huge loss to Rugby League. Our best player at the world cup.

He gets to roll around on the floor a few times a week, once in front of fans, all on silly money. Can't blame him.

If he succeeds and plays for England, he'll have the opportunity to play in front of 60-80,000 people at least 9 times a year. He also has a(nother) home World Cup and Lions Tour to aim for.

He'll have the chance to play the All Blacks, the Springboks and the Pumas in their own countries as well as the experience of Paris, Rome, Dublin, Cardiff and Edinburgh in the Six Nations.

I'm sure money was a part of the motivation but I can't help but think the RLWC las year whetted his appetite to play on those kinds of stages.

Good luck to him and I'm sure he'll be back playing League in the future.

Have to agree with this and fair play to him. The only thing that concerns me is that we are consistently losing our best talents to union. This all starts at the very top with the governing bodies of our sport who are paid to sort issues like this out.

The world cup was a success, however it was a limited success because, as you rightly point out, players want that thrill a few times every year not once every four years.

good luck to him, not sure he has the speed for centre but time will tell, must be honest i like rugby union when its played at the top level,

The traditional English Public School-middle class player talent pool has dried up somewhat. When it was an amateur thing, you could have your career as a doctor or a solicitor as well. Now you have to choose not to go University at 18 (as the overwhelming majority of Public School-middle class kids do) for the sake of [ia shot[/i at a pretty insecure career (for all but the very best).
It'll be hitting RL too, but to a lesser degree. Unfortunately, in some respects.
As they continue to generate more revenue than us but relatively little talent, they have to look at players from other countries (even more so than 'we' have), other sports, and non-traditional demographics to fill the gaps.
They're cash rich but talent poor, and this sort of stuff is a consequence - as it was when we were more often the poachers. French RU is 'suffering' in a similar way.
If (and hopefully when) educational and economic prospects improve for Polynesian populations, for example, we'll see something similar there.

I think the Public School Middle Class aspect of your comment is largely wide of the mark. The players are there in huge numbers (granted, less than in years gone by, but still huge numbers). It's more about opportunity.

Like football before, these clubs have been driven by the need to succeed on the field at the expense of younger talent - bringing in average foreign players instead. This has meant journeyman pros from NZ, Australia, SA and other countries being richly rewarded over younger local talent.

Sound familiar?

Rugby Union in this country has only recently woken up to the unsustainability of this and started to blood younger players - as has Rugby League.

With relegation and the massive loss of revenue, you can excuse Rugby Union clubs to a certain extent.

The really sad thing is that, in Super League and without relegation, we've lost years and years before (some) clubs have realised that this is unsustainable and properly focused on developing young players and giving them opportunities.

Even more sad would be if clubs, under threat of relegation or the commercial impact of having to play in the "middle eight", revert to paying older, foreign players at the expense of young local talent. If that was their default position without relegation, I'm more than a little concerned about what will happen when they consider the commercial impact of being relegated or even just competing in the "middle eight".

The World Cup was incredible but when do we next have the chance to watch International Rugby at home? This is massive missed opportunity. It'll probably be something close two years by which time the capital, goodwill and interest built up by the World Cup will be largely gone.

Such a shame.

It's not just about participation, it's about how worthwhile it is to pursue it as a career. I agree it is about opportunities, but it is also about alternatives. It's good that they exist, but the choice to stick to social or semi-pro rugby is natural enough for plenty of lads, in both codes. More so in traditionally RU areas, I strongly suspect.