I think we should make our young players, who come from youth system off the salary cap so we can keep our league players in league and stop union teams stealing them.

It's not just the cash, it's:

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Genuine international competition
European club rugby

Until we address these points, RU will always be very attractive to talented young players. Throwing more money at them than union can is a short term fix.

Union is bigger and a genuinely better career move for players now.

We should just get used to it and try to close the gap somewhat. We should be busting a gut to get the Sheiks and Oligarchs involved in the sport.

True, but money talks

Taking young players off the salary cap isn't going to make any more money appear in rugby league. The simple fact is that, at the moment, there is more money in union and good players will be tempted to cross over.

That would be awesome in terms of levelling up the competition, imagine if the team whose won the past two Grand Finals and already won the minor premiership, didn't have to count the likes of Burrow, Sinfield, McGuire and co on their salary cap, they could sign some top Aussie test stars and dominate for a decade like Wigan

People are not property. They can do what they want and play what sport they want, subject to employment contracts (even that means very little).

We have seen no mass exodus from League so far and we won't see one in the future either as Union clubs begin to operate in the real world rather than in fantasy land where rich benefactors allow them to spend whatever they want. Wigan fans should understand this.

I wish Lee Smith had remained at Leeds, and I think he'll do okay at Wasps. But as most League fans outside Leeds just think he's a bit of a chav chancer he can't be that big a loss can he. For every Jason Robinson (who still had nearly 10 years in League before he moved) there's a Chev Walker, who dumped a top flight League career to struggle in the Bath reserve team before realising the Westcountry is a long way from all your mates in Yorkshire.


I am not concerned. Economics will still mean that South Sea Islanders and ancient Australians will be the preferred squad fillers for English Union clubs.

Agree 100%. The likes of City and Chelsea have cost their current owners gazzilions.......but League may well be a better option. Family game with family values, no cheating (blood bins, diving, crashing)......an arab could find enough money to buy wigan by just checking down the back of their sofa.......
Saldord City Sheiks? Harlequins Hareem......

or even the Celtic Crusaders....(would go down well...maybe call them saracens)......

The reality is that a lot of Super League clubs still aren't spending up to the £1.6m salary cap. Taking a club-trained player off that cap is not going to increase how much that club could pay any given player.

If you're a Leeds or Wigan, there is an obvious benefit. If you are a Salford, how does taking a Myler or Ratchford off the salary cap increase ability to pay him enough to keep him?

Is this actually a problem?

Which young players have so far gone to union?

Myler wasn't very good at Widnes before he went, Walker came back, Chris Ashton has disappeared in to oblivion after a promising start.

Lee Smith is perhaps the only established young star to leave and he is hardly the jewel in the crown of Birtish rugbh league is he?

Exactly. It isn't like most SL teams are turning big profits and straining at the leash to spend more on player wages.

Most clubs are constrained by actual real-world money - not the cap. Relaxing the cap is like increasing your credit card limit. It doesn't in itself increase your wealth or spending power - well, not if you want to remain solvent.

Good post. The English rugby union salary cap is somewhere around 4.5 million pounds and a number of clubs want it raised.
This is despite two or three in the top division and numerous clubs outside the top flight being in serious trouble.
If they want to use their budgets to poach players like Semi Tadulala rather then developing their own talent then good luck to them.

Has Ashton not being doing so well then? Sounds like Danny Williams at Newcastle has done OK - again probably not a huge loss to SL, but given the rarity of half-decent British backs I really don't think we can afford to be blase about losing players at all. Check the threequarters from the top 8 teams competing in the play-offs (excluding Cats) for confirmation - a lot of overseas players and a smattering of good British players.

League's supporters problem is that we concetrate on the negetives too much. Lee smith leaving isn't going to make the slightest bit of difference to our sport, it won't even hamper Leeds that much.

Concentrate on improving our sport through coaching and infastructure and work towards a decent international team and we'll hopefully be able to offer our lads something that vaguely compares to unions pulling points. We'll also hopefully be able to negoteate a more realistic package from sky in relation to ru clubs.

Its not like 10 years ago, premiership ru is in the full swing of proffessionalism. Our lads can't just turn up for a cake walk any more. Even the likes of gasnier and SBW haven't exactly shone like you'd have expected a fews years back. Any signing from RL is a big gamble, so don't expect them to come hunting our big names very often.

Agree and in the case of Lee Smith / Leeds Rhinos there'll be another one along. In fact the lad that signed from Doncaster, Michael Coady looks a good prospect given that he's now moved into a full-time regime.

Given that Leeds have also chosen to release Ratu and Gibson, it doesn't look like they're struggling to fill a shirt. They have a good young player in Watkins and (if I'm right) have imported a centre for next season?

offiah played for the dragons

This is only going to be a problem because of the mindset of pommy players.


For Poms, its about feeling important ahead of anything else.


Become good enough to go to a big club. Become good enough to be well known in the town you play for. Become good enough to be talked about in the paper.

Now, its about being important enough that you can go and play rugby union.

I think even Rugby Union in the UK gets these English League players and doesn't think much of them. I mean, your players are struggling to make the grade at club level....in rugby union....

So I don't think its about a challenge or going over and playing test matches, because the fact is the biggest test in English "Rugby" is trying to beat us in Rugby league.


Its about being important like Sean Long and Keith Senior and Andy Farrell and all of the players who were really important in their little towns in Northern England but who were nothing once they left.

..................and Jason Robinson of course - who withered into obscurity once he switched codes.

creamed

What about the rest of them?

2 of the biggest losses to union IMO are George Ford & Owen Farrell. There's no doubt IMO that both players would have been great League players, now they've turned to the dark side

Lets clear something up.....they are English....so no, they wouldn't have been great at League.

I really do think that Union in the UK is going to implode in the next 5 years… they have two massive hubs of support in Leicester and the West Country… Leeds and Bath (Leicester in particular getting 24k at home matches while they haven't scored a try all season!)

The rest are trying to run a £4.5 million salary cap on gates of 4 - 10k a week. Anybody running a business knows this is not sustainable and if the sugar daddies up and leave half the clubs would go under tomorrow

I know it isn't glamorous but let's keep running our sport prudently and keep spreading the word at the grass roots level and the strategy will pay off. Full marks to Richard Lewis for instilling this discipline

If we lose one or two Lee Smiths along the way, so be it

OK... I meant Gloucester not Leeds before it's mentioned (was thinking of Leeds as one of the unsustainable ones!)