Not true. He also controls the game better than anyone who has challenged him and his defence is probably the best I've ever seen from a 10 in Union.

He no longer takes on the line as often as he used to. He's a conservative England selection - Toby Flood will go to the line more and make things happen, but he won't structure the midfield. Personally I'd like to see England take the shackles off, but until they do, Wilkinson is the best man for the game plan.

Flood is the first credible challenger to him in a long time. The likes of Hodgson, Cipriani etc were nowhere near good enough.

Being scary quick over five yards would mean he'll run out of gas about the same time a League defensive line meets him.

I'm no big fan of Union but I have watched a bit of it in preference to football during the winter and I have to say Wilkinson is a great kicker an OK defender when he gets there (didn't one or both French tries go through him at the weekend?) but ball in hand very limited in terms of pass selection and accuracy.

It could just be the game though.

Wilkinson also was 'scary slow' over twenty yards or so 4 years ago. I suspect he's even slower now. He also looked dreadful for England at the World Cup, espeecially when asked to actually act as a playmaker (his passes nearly all missed the mark by a disctance). Not saying he's not a good rugby player, but I seriously doubt he'd ever have torn it up in league.

One thing that strikes me as well is that RU has often gone for RL players for the wrong reason. The games are different, and whilst some players would be equally effective at both, there are definitely players who's natural game suits one more than the other. Henry Paul and Iestyn Harris did OK in Union, but to me they were archetypal league players. The same used to be true when RL was signing Union players.

Makes you wonder if the RFU and the WRU were doing some of their league recruiting for the right reasons?

Instead of throwing a lot of money at a player who may or may not make it, they would be better off getting a fairly decent RL coach to employs as skills and defence Ford was a disaster, they would be better paying someone like Tony Smith a lot of money to become the next Skills/Defence coach at least he could improve everyone else's ball handling skills

I expect Tomkins to be as succesful at playing Union as Andy Farrell was

There will be some very interesting initiatives regarding the signing of Rugby Union players announced soon.

What do you mean by that Rogues?

God knows.

Some people just like to to show they 'know more' than others, so post vague comments and innuendo without really telling you anything.

Lenagan has come out and said Wigan will target young Union players (16-19 IIRC). He also stated that the Australian market is 'dead'.

There's more to it than that, and more than just Wigan. Let's just say there could be an incentive to "strike back" at R.U.

I was told in confidence, so I'll leave it there for now, but this source was very very good.

Perhaps you should have left it altogether then, with respect.

Dont tell me the RFL will be giving wigan SC dispensation to sign some big name raa raa players. Cos that'll be good for the game

Well the whole "Club Wigan", sorry "Club GB" thing worked so well didn't it?

Andy Farrell was very successful in union. Despite only playing around a dozen games in 3 years, he was capped 8 times by England, has got into the club coaching set up, and his lad Owen is doing pretty well. No doubt he made quite a few quid as well !

Funnily enough.....wait until Tuesday.

There's no point in trying to outspend union on individual players, we have to accept it is a richer sport than League.

If union identify a target player (youngish, 22-23, currently paid £40 - £50K pa) and offer to double or triple his salary, it will be difficult (perhaps stupid) for the lad to turn it down.

Quite a few wigginers on C & W are blaming the salary cap for the Tomkins scenario, demanding it be scrapped, while conveniently forgetting -

1. When they were the 'big boys' of world rugby, they bought up players worldwide from both codes, by outspending those other clubs

2. This profligate spending led to them losing their ground.

I admit to some schadenfraude now a 'bigger boy' has come along, and is nicking their toys



There is work to do to keep players in the game - longer term contracts, some work around cap dispensation perhaps, but, as has been alluded to, I reckon the retaliation should be to target the junior and academy levels in union for recruitement. League is a proven fast track into top level club and international union, and we should use it. Once these kids play League, they well get a taste for it, and some may have no desire to return to the rucksnmauls.

Not all RU converts made the grade.

Aye, there was always the odd John Gallagher, Mark Brooke-Cowden and David Young knocking about.

Rob Ackerman?

wilkinson of 5 years ago might have been a option but would probably be too old to change his game

dont harlequins gather players from both codes and teach them the basics then decide which code they are suited to?
comparing union to league is as pointless as comparing it to american football just because the balls are similar
90% of the game requires different skills and attributes but that doesnt mean they cant learn from each other
union rarely seems to use a bullet pass { the pass to ashton in the eng vs scot game was more like a basketball throw while union kickers seem more accurate at goal kicking

I'll name that tune in one.....

Quote ="Richie"Funnily enough.....wait until Tuesday.'" www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/23 ... mpionships Hopefully this will mean union converts (or any other sport) we develop into decent RL players won't be faced with having to either relocate, or a four hour round trip, if their to train with a pro RL club. Despite them currently being faced by that, we've come up with 11 (5 Super League) players in pro academies in four years....how much could we expand our pro playing basis by after this kind of geographical expansion?

Quote ="Richie"Funnily enough.....wait until Tuesday.'" www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/23 ... mpionships Hopefully this will mean union converts (or any other sport) we develop into decent RL players won't be faced with having to either relocate, or a four hour round trip, if their to train with a pro RL club. Despite them currently being faced by that, we've come up with 11 (5 Super League) players in pro academies in four years....how much could we expand our pro playing basis by after this kind of geographical expansion?

How realistic are these plans Richie?

Are some of these clubs seriously going to be able to support a semi-pro side in the next couple of years - do they have the commercial infrastructure to do so?