In a red V. Discuss.

Sam Tompkins - no chance.

Ryan Hampshire once his contract expires - every chance.

No chance. Next.....?

Id 100% take him but no chance.

There's more chance of Saints signing Sam Panapa than either of them.

It's all about who has most space under the cap, I imagine. We'll meet your Burgess with a Masoe, and raise you a Hohaia. Let's see your hand.

Lomax has to retire, Slompkins in. Not a bad deal. Make derbies even better. Never happen though

The goons will be praying the marque player rule goes through , then also praying Pollard loosens up the purse strings.

Would I have Tomkins in the v ? yes , why not he's a top player, will it happen ? No chance , Salford and Dire (his boyhood team) will be happy to throw money at him if Goonland isnt his destination.

I'd take Ryan Hampshire though and he might want out if Tomkins was to land back as it means he'd be 2nd choice fullback with no realistic chance of being first choice , and he'd still be behind Powell , Williams and Smith in the halves which is where he wants to play anyway.

Wigan have a clause were they have first refusal on him anyway. They'd be mad not to take that up and they must be way off the salary cap now, so no probs there

Interesting how those work. First refusal means just that, doesn't mean he has to take it. I'd love the Doc to cause some trouble and offer him a wedge

That would be good!

He's reached his level now in the NRL. A very good "second tier" player who was overtaken by Burgess & Graham in terms of performance and achievement.

His attack on Cunningham's knee was one of the filthiest pieces of play I've ever seen.

I very much doubt KC would look twice at him.

Just because he's not had the impact of Graham or the Burgi clan does not make him a poor player. We're deperate for a good full back and he would be one of if not the best in SL

Cunningham won't look at him because he knows he isn't worth the kind of money both the NRL and Union are prepared to pay. And we don't have it anyway.

If he wants to play RL we can afford him, but if he wants to keep something like his current wages, it'll be RU all the way

Let him go. He's not an exceptional player. He was never a complete player, even in Super League. Playing in the NRL he has quickly been found out. The NRL is so strong now that it weeds them out very quickly. Tomkins is one of those players who would score plenty in SL and do some highlight reel stuff, but then make several mistakes and it wouldn't matter because the consequences aren't there like they were in Australia.

Him playing for Saints? No chance, he's a grub of a human being.

How could diehard Saints even consider this ridiculous idea of Tomkins puling on a white jersey with a red V? It's like us contemplating a Bull (for example Jamie Peacock) coming to play at Headingley. Could never happen

This is nonsense. Also, I thought you didn't watch the nrl as it's boring so how do you know?

If by highlights reel you mean helping his club win trophies, then yes he's a highlights reel player.

Letting the old Red vee specs cloud your vision here saddo - Tomkins is a class act.

He's nothing like that, off the field he is a nice lad, on the field he's, an irritant to the opposition.

He hangs around with Gareth Hock, how long do you think it'll be before he's in prison?

How many games did Cunningham miss from that tackle?

When Cunningham got the coaches job back in July last year, he tried to sign Matty Smith. That move may now be back on.

Good on him, we should be doing our best to unsettle any Wigan player, even the ones who would be miles away from our first choice team.

I think a couple of posters have their Saints tinted glasses on when talking about Sam Tomkins. I certainly wouldn't describe him as 'second tier' standard or that he's been found out in the NRL.

The lad is absolute class and undoubtedly one of the best fullbacks in the world. I'd love Saints to pick him up but it's not going to happen.

Unfortunately, it looks likely that this stupid 'marquee player' rule is going to come in, which is great news for that idiot at Salford but bad news for the long term financial stability of other super league clubs. Many of whom will be scraping by already.

I'd be interested to see where you heard KC wanted to sign Smith from. I was told in early August (by a guy who knows the Hull KR chairman very well) that we had tied up the deal for Travis Burns (and Burns has said in an interview earlier this season that it was KC who he spoke to most and really pushed for him to sign). We knew at that point that Walsh would be here this season too so find it hard to believe that we would have had any interest in Smith as we wouldnt have needed him

Don't necessarily agree on the marquee rule - they should relax all the rules re: third party sponsorship etc for a marquee player - if a club can drum up enough incremental finance on the back of a marketable player signing for their club, why shouldn't they?

I think structured correctly the marquee player rule could work, at the end of the day it's a relatively small (if limited to one player) exception on a cap that has declined in real terms for a while.