Fair enough.

Would have been a fantastic bit of business by Cas if true.

I wonder what Phil Clarke's view on all this?. If his brother,Solomona & Sale are successful in all this get ready for more "retirements" of young, talented players in S.L.

R.U clubs will have a hit list drawn up already mark my words.

So would I. He's never afraid to express an opinion. The actions of his brother could have serious long term consequences for the quality of the sport he commentates on.

I agree. They can throw money at all manner of players without the cost of a transfer and if it doesn't work out let them retire back from Union into League.

We wouldn't be able to ban them from our sport as we need all the stars we can get.

What other sport would tolerate Willie Mason for example?

We need names to try and sell the game.

Long term I can see the RFU having a plan to absorb the RFL and place us as a similar offshoot of their game such as 7s.

Balls to that. Solomona should be banned from RL for at least the remaining years on his Cas contract. And we don't need "names" to sell the game, if we do then what the hell are the RFL doing?

Following this conversation a few days a go, I have been spending my spare time reading up on the legal premise of receiving offers leading to value. Whilst I have learnt a lot about trademark law I haven't really seen anything I can relate yet.

That being said, the fundamental premise will be, have Castleford lost out on that transfer fee directly because of Solomona's actions? If Castleford had rejected the offers before Solomona became subject to disciplinary proceedings (and that is an assumption on my behalf), then it is conjecture that Castleford would receive further offers of equal/ higher value. It would be up to Castleford to prove that another club were planning to bid when Solomona took his leave (I wouldn't assume they would have to prove value, as its an easy jump of logic that a club knowing Castleford had rejected X that they would have to offer at least X as well). If they cannot prove that, then I cannot see how Castleford can include this as part of their damages.

Any truth in the rumour Phil Clarke owes a percentage of his brothers agency?. If true way to go Phil...assisting in asset stripping the sport that you claim to love and commentate on!

Greedy lover....if there are any more "retirements", A warm welcome awaits you next season at R.L grounds I think!

The fundamental premises will be has Solomona breached his contract, have Cas lost out because of that breach, did Sale induce Solomona to breach that contract.

If Solomona did breach the contract then Cas's losses aren't just a transfer fee (I don't think Sale will be comforted by the precedent for cross code transfer fees. They are relatively high) but merchandising, prize money, etc etc.

Just for debate, is he all that good?


I know he's an excellent finisher, under our current ruleset of the corner post now not being touch in goal, but i can't really say i've been bowled over with his other contribution further up the field/the rest of his game a la hall or mcgillveray.

I only ask this as since the corner post was taken out of the equasion and the amount of acrobatic tries have been scored, sky have waxed lyrical about winger being the best thing since sliced bread, Penny, Ormsby, dixon makinson and Denny have all been heralded for it.

Is his ability to score like this going to translate to yawnion? is it the cased that he's ed on his chips that are on his burnt bridge?

I do think a lot of his tries were the product of good service from Gale and Dorn - you have to remember that for 3/4 of the season we didn't have a right-sided halfback and as a result all of our play went down Solomona's side. The wingers on that side regularly scored 2 or three tries whenever Solomona wa injured - and the other centre/wing didn't get much attention at all (Think Crooks scored 2 tries all season, etc)

However some of the finishes were pure class - it's very easy to say that his record is due to the good service, but some of his stuff was pure talent. Not sure if that'll transfer over to union, but I guess we'll see. But to be honest, I'm more upset about losing Luke Dorn than I am about Solomona.

yup, the gale dorn combo was damn effective, and my worry for cas this year replacing that wth hardaker or eden wont be anywhere near the same.

But as you say excellent work by them put him in positions where he still needed to finish and finish he did,however pardn the expression yawnion is a different ball game, i can see charnley's 'game' adapting better than denny's.

We are now into week 4 of this situation and still no comment from the RFL. Baffling.

Correct, Philip Anthony Clarke is a Director and 30% shareholder in the company Outside Sport Ltd.

Funnily enough he doesn't list that job amongst all his others on his public LinkedIn profile

You can be a shareholder in a company without being employed (as a job). He may be a director but how much day-to-day involvement does he have?

It matters little. He has a large share in a company that has been involved in what has been described as asset-stripping from the game he reckons he loves. He's not alone in this. Andy Farrell was another "legend" who was happy to asset-strip for the benefit of his new paymasters, but at least he did nothing underhand. Whatever the legalities of the situation, the morality of it stinks, and Phil Clarke should hang his head in shame if he has had any hand in it or benefits financially from it.

Quote ="Tigerade"We are now into week 4 of this situation and still no comment from the RFL. Baffling.'" ....and as if by magic it appears:- www.rugby-league.com/article/390 ... -contracts Nigel Wood states - "The RFL is extremely disappointed to learn that properly contracted Super League players may not be fulfilling the terms of their employment with Super League clubs as agreed. Contracts are two way commitments mutually binding on both parties. The RFL will support its member clubs absolutely to defend their contractual positions and will work with other similarly inclined Governing Bodies to ensure that the unacceptable potential anarchy of lawful contracts simply being walked away from, is not tolerated."

Quote ="Tigerade"We are now into week 4 of this situation and still no comment from the RFL. Baffling.'" ....and as if by magic it appears:- www.rugby-league.com/article/390 ... -contracts Nigel Wood states - "The RFL is extremely disappointed to learn that properly contracted Super League players may not be fulfilling the terms of their employment with Super League clubs as agreed. Contracts are two way commitments mutually binding on both parties. The RFL will support its member clubs absolutely to defend their contractual positions and will work with other similarly inclined Governing Bodies to ensure that the unacceptable potential anarchy of lawful contracts simply being walked away from, is not tolerated."

Exactly Slugger. It wouldn't surprise me if Wigan were involved in this as well. They have form in these sort of dealings.

I hate Wigan as much as the next RL fan but honestly...

Yeah what a ridiculous statement, this thing will affect every club in the British game, if players are allowed to get away with this then it's open season on RL.

Agreed, Wigan will be as worried as any RL club if it transpires that RU clubs can sign their players regardless of contract status.
However, it will be interesting to see how Wigan respond given their 'partnership' with a certain RU club.

Your mention of LinkedIn made me have a quick look and I found this on Shaun Wane's profile.

"I am the Head Coach at Wigan Warriors Rugby League Club. This involves working with world class athletes on a day to day basis, to perfect their skills and enable them to be the absolute best they can. I also work with a great insurance company specialising in commercial insurance, please feel free to call if you require a visit or a quotation. If you have any enquiries for the above please contact me on" then an email address and phone number is supplied.

What's all that about?

It's like Brexit mate, they dont want to *weaken their bargaining position or, *they haven't got a clue what they are doing

*delete 1 answer only

Wane also does 'motivational speaking'.

Her indoors had to sit through one of his speeches at Wigan Council, I wondered how many could understand a word of his grunting & if an interpreter was present.

I think you could say he has ......

'A finger in every [iPie' !!![/i

RFL are putting thier full weight behind Castlefords legal battle, so I guess they are sending Nigel Wood ,does this mean they are hiring the legal team too?

Best thing the RFL can do, is spook the Football League fuys into thinking that the breaking contract issue would affect them if this scenario was allowed to set precedent.
Can you imagine there being any dithering if Hazard decided to retire from Football and Chelsea and then pop up at Barcelona with no legal issues being raised. They'd be discussing that in parliament never mind high court.