But having used this stunt to gain greater publicity for the player it is then up to Wigan and the RFL to use this higher profile to their advantage.

We have an incredible game and fantastic athletes, yet nothing we have done in the past has made the national media and therefore the wider public take notice. If doing something like this gives one of our players an increased profile then we have something we can begin to build our marketing around.

I don't see how anything will come out of this stunt other than raising the profile of Sam Tomkins and RU.

Yes the RU are certainly not using for their own PR -

[urlhttps://twitter.com/#!/Official_RFU/status/139341427867009027/photo/1[/url

That pic makes me shudder.

What I dont want to see is young RL players looking forward to using a short career in RL to an lucrative pay day in RU.

RL is not a feeder sport.

RU are milking this for all its worth.

Perhaps as a PR trade we could get Chris Ashton/ Sonny Bill to play for the exiles next June?

The RFL have had a few warning shots but this needs to wake them up - the RFU and NRL are ready to poach our talent.

He's playing on the wing.
[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rugby/11/11/23/RUGBYU_Barbarians.html&BID=480[/url

Hope he's got some warm clothing.

And who says you are right?

It's not as if you can blame them for milking it though!
Tomkins and Habana on the wings, should be prety destructive..... Well thats if they get the ball

The RFL and IL have already done this, but it was obviously ignored by most people here.


This is not true pre-super league there was plenty of coverage, the most famous sporting club outside of football and arguably cricket was Wigan themselves and the most famous player of either code was Martin Offiah and at that time GB International RL was seeing it's greatest ever attendances and at Wembley and RL had regular terrestial TV coverage. RU as a sport became professional and that is when things began to change along with the involvement of Sky.



RFL have already declared ST as their face of RL so they clearly have something in mind one of the problems with this is ST is hardly universally liked within RL in the same terms Pietersen, Wilkinson, Beckham.

Tenner on Sam getting hat trick at 66/1 ha



Itll make a dull game a bit more interesting I guess.

I am talking long term brand building here - If Sam is with us for at least three years we can use his profile to attract new fans through innovative marketing.



Whilst I agree that International attendances were better I don't ever remember getting substantial press coverage - this has always been one of my pet hates. Possibly the inclusion of more "High profile" converts from union had an impact on attendances - all the more reason to try different ways of increasing the profile of our modern players.


I don't see this as a problem - the only people that have a particular dislike for Sam are some existing spectators. I would think that new fans would be more attracted to expansive, exciting rugby rather than put off by niggling on-field antics.

Stuart Barnes doesn't like Tomkins' lifestyle.

Great publicity so far...

He'll be wasted on the wing

That's the first time ive seen him smile.

i read this on skysports, what the f does he know about sam's lifestyle? the fact he works hard at raising money for milly or is it just a dig that he plays league?

At least if he spends 80 minutes as a spectator, it will put him off Union for life.

But where would you play Sam in a RU team?

Ignoring the pack (for obvious reasons) he wouldn't make a good scrum half as he'd want to run with the ball too much; he wouldn't make a good fly half as he hasn't got the RU experience to direct play well; he wouldn't make a good centre as he hasn't got the build needed to take the ball into the oncoming pack of the defending team.

Given the ethos of the Barbarians it would be difficult to argue against selecting him at full back, but looking at it from a long-term perspective (on the assumption he will eventually sign for a RU club) his natural game isn't that of a RU full back given the amount of kicking they do.

That leaves you with putting him on the wing.

Sam Tomkins is clearly a very good RL player who has the potential to go on to be one of the sport's great players. But, IMHO, he is far less likely to make a successful RU player than Joel Tomkins is probably going to become.

Has Eastmond played RU yet?

Outside centre. No size needed there.

but as said above. being a spectator will put him off so happy with that.

I'm not sure he's entertaing Union out of some romantic image of the sport as being entertaining. It's a money thing.

£10 free bet from Sky Bet on a Tomkins hattrick at 66/1. Come on!

I'm sure the money will ease some of that boredom.

From the wing against Australia in his first ever game? Good look with that.

You do realise that him doing well will mean he'll go sooner than his 3 year promise thing suggests?

im looking forward to this game on sat now..... it will be the first game of rugby union i have properly watched since the England world cup final win.... i hope he rips it up and scores a shít load of tries.

Not the kind of reaction I think the reverse psychology marketing experts on here would think.

Those fawning over Leneghan's PR genius and claiming this move was great for League need to think again. It's a fabulous thing for Union. The lack of progress in the North may well be changed around by this. It's the perfect game to get new viewers, it'll be less anal than normal high level Union games and probably a lot more entertaining.

Unions wins here, not League.

Quite. The spin will be (and has already been, in certain quarters) that RL's elite are so desperate to move away from the muddy northern cesspits to the bright lights and pristine pitches of the greater game that they're gagging to appear in exhibition games.

I think those celebrating this are almost exclusively the section of Wigan fans who have bought so heavily into Tomkins being the best RL player since Jesus played centre that they have become entrenched in the myth.