IMO Royce SHOULD continue to pick ea$tmond for the time being. He's had to make a very very tough choice for a kid and looks like he's had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Now that's lifted he might get back to playing his best rugby.

I'd see how he plays over the next month and see if he's giving his 100% as he's said he would. If after a month he's not putting the effort in then drop him to train and play in reserves. I wouldn't let him leave early unless bath pay for him or he walks away.

We can't just drop him now as same could be said for all players that are set to leave in the future like jammer. He needs to be given more time and see how he plays.

Dux, you just beat me to more or less same post



I was told by someone at the club that the reason it took so long was because we wanted him to go now to get him off the cap and wanted money off bath to have him now.

As others have said though, he is a professional rugby league player. I now expect him to play to the top of his performance in every match because he has had a lot of investment from the club I pay my money to and I'd like to see a return on that investment. No 'touch choice for a kid' stuff for me. He isn't a kid. He is 21 years old. That makes him an adult. He is also a paid professional. So far as I'm concerned anyway if he doesn't play to the top of his game from now on in he should be dropped and one of our more enthusiastic professionals should have the opportunity to develop their game. I don't see why they should be held back just to facilitate Kyle Eastmond.

I think the game in France at the weekend will be a good time for Kyle to try and get his RL head on as it will be away from most of the limelight. We will not have as many fans there like we have at a home or away game over here. Hopefully it will help him and us to all settle down again if we have got him until the end of the year.

The announcement on the Club website screams 'boy are we pi$$ed off with him'.

Chapter closed in my opinion. He's made his decision, let's start making ours and we'll rebuild and be bigger and better without him. We've lost far far more significant players than him in recent seasons and survived.

The King is Dead. Long live the King.

We could 'survive' with no players given there is no relegation. But he is unquestionably the best youth player we've produced and we've not even got him established in the first team before he's left.

He isn't, both Roby and Cunningham are far better and there is certainly an argument that Graham is a better prop than Eastmond is a 7.

Now that the weight's off his mind, Kyle's performances may buck up. Alternatively, his heart may not be in it and he may give the same half-ass performance that we've see in our recent big games. If its the latter, we should look at at least pushing him out to the centre when Pryce is back, giving Gaskell and Lomax more chances in the halves.

Its disappointing,but at least the saga is at an end

One more bad game from him and the crowd will want him out? And the boo's will start from me

Like this one....
[urlhttp://www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/590[/url

Spot on. I've been told that Saints' offer was very similar to Bath's. Unfortunately for us the profile he will have is much higher.

And besides, he's already seen a Wigan fringe player become the saviour of England RU.

I'd have much preferred Eastmond going now as I've seen very little in his performances this or last season which suggest he's prepared to put his body on the line for the club and inspire others to greatness for the remainder of the season.

I'd missed this bit:



Gulp!

At Widnes I noticed a number of fans criticising McManus for his assertion two-three seasons ago that the club would be in a far stronger position now if we allowed wunderkinder such as Eastmond, Wheeler, Lomax etc. to develop at the expense of the established pros. It'll be interesting to see what the reaction will be now that the keystone of McManus' plan has flown the coop and none of the other names have so far developed to the point where they can even command a regular first team position...

Yeah really!

Miz is dog poo. Cena will tear him apart.

Let's not forget he wasn't due back from injury yet, a factor to his performances that does not appear to be factored into this 'greed' argument.

How many other 20 year old players play or played with the organising ability that many are expecting from Eastmond, and the name Murphy is banned. Long certainly didn't, Martyn did most of that for him. I think we'll see another player once Pryce is back and he hits fitness. Of course that probably won't be good enough for many who'll try and hound him out of the club before season end, even if it means that the club is poorer for it. Of course he may not bother and put in half hearted performances, in that case the best case is to get rid as soon as possible, but people are condemning him for something that hasn't happened yet. Players play with players going elsewhere every year. It's part of the game and they know it, so if he's not trying 100%, they'll let him know, so I can't see it being a major problem for them.

I'll give him a chance to regain form and fitness like I would any young player coming back from a series of bad injuries.

If he's still pansying around behind the line in a month's time, I won't lose any sleep if he's boo'd more than Gary Connolly at a Wigan team reunion at the The George.

That's fair enough, if he's still not doing anything by then I'd expect him to be dropped myself.

Kyle Eastmond will be 22 in July btw.

He wasn't even taking on the line, never mind organising! Since he could hoof the ball down the pitch, clearly his ankles weren't giving him any problems. So there were no excuses for him to hang back like he did, just passing out (badly) for his team mates to get bashed. He could have kicked some of those lovely chip kicks he used to do when we were pounding away at Wire's line. But he didn't. Lee Gaskell was making far more effort in his third full match at first grade but I bet he isn't paid anywhere near the amount Kyle Eastmond is.

He was prior to his injury last year.

I want The Rock to tear Cena apart



Regarding Eastmond......

He's not going to get much off season is he? Maybe a couple of weeks, but in the event that we were to get to the Grand Final (or even just the the play offs) he'll finish at the beginning of october/end september and only have a few weeks to train/recouperate/etc etc. Seems a bit strange to me, is he going to be nipping down to Bath once a month to train with them? ?!?!

Last year the Ariva Premiership started on 10th September which is right in the middle of our Play Off's.

Obviously the reason Eastmond hasn't gone now is because Bath didn't want to pay the transfer fee so they're "willing" to accept that he won't have much time to prepare.

I expect he'll be making many "unofficial" visits to Bath during this Super League season, familiarizing himself with his new surroundings, teammates and maybe even training with them

.

I think it's more likely that they accept that he'll be spending most of his time sat in their reserves. He'll also not need to get fit as he'll have had a season with us, what's the need for pre season training?