Dont know about you guys,but as soon as i see or hear that some player has signed a binding contract pledging his loyalty to his said club then i get the alarm bells ringing....Hope i am wrong but i have got a feeling about this one...Cant help there is a bit of brotherly influence about this..It reminds of a players who kiss the badge,,once that starts,,its usually Tarra....

I trust that was tongue in cheek

Not a chance mate. the equivalent would have to be an elite Rugby Union player!

would never happen. Still waiting for a statement from the RFL and Wigan Warriors!

All contracts can be bought out. He can't talk to union clubs, but I bet there'll be plenty of talking after the game and in the dressing room and in the bar, and when Joel brings a friend in a suit for Sunday dinner. And union clubs can talk to Wigan and make an offer the club can't refuse. Wigan haven't secured Sam at Wigan. They have just made the compensation more expensive. The tragedy is that they have made union a more likely destination than the NRL.

And I presume he has indicated a willingness to play if they are thinking of picking him.

Once he's dropped a couple of high kicks, and realised that the ones he catches he has to kick back, he might change his mind.

Invite manu tuilagi to play for the exiles

He wouldn't hack it. It's easy to play the tough guy when the big men are still untangling themselves from a pile-on twenty yards away (was a good punch though!).

I thought the Barbarians had something in their criteria for selection that the player must "be off good character and behave himself on and off the field".

Hopefully Tomkins plays and gets stamped on or eye gouged, or get his testicles squeezed in a 'cuddle'.

I really don't see this as a bad thing if it's true. It shows our sport in a good light I feel. A guy who plays in RL can walk into a baa baa's team and play against the Aussies without even playing one game in Union.
Win win for him and RFL as he would get a lot of money to keep him happy and our sport gets more coverage than ever and hopefully if he does play he has a blinder scores a hattrick and then we see him playing RL for another 3 years atleast.

If this happens Ian Lenaghan is a disgrace.

Grow a pair and tell ickle Sam to p*ss off and practice catching high balls in his spare time.

Isn't that what I said?

Why shouldn't Sam Tomkins play for the Barbarians?

'But Tomkins could make a one-off union appearance against the Wallabies.'

The publicity will only be beneficial to our game.

Wow, some people are incredibly gullible. Are you Ian Lenaghan?

Absolutely spot-on.

It seems this is definitely happening, and Tomkins has been officially selected in the 22 man matchday squad. Presumably, he'll be on the bench, and come on in the second half for a 20 minute (or so) cameo appearance.

Not sure what to make of it ........ does this show both/either code in a negative or positive light, is it the first step to his crossing codes; is it a good advertisement for RL, is it too big a step to take (first game against the Wallabies in front of a packed Twickenham) ?

I hope he does well, and as the Baa Baas are known for their running rugby, it won't be a disaster if he runs from impossible positions and loses possession.

The only thing I can see is that it is an embarrassment for Union to pick a player for an international team that has never played union.

I hope he absolutely rips it up and then bigs up Rugby League in all of the interviews. be interesting to see where they will play him.

Full back?

But would he be encouraged to just kick it back, or to use his skills?

He'd have to catch it first.

Can someone tell me how Wigan benefit from this?

I'll just put on record that 48 hours ago I had totally done a u-turn on Tomkins. He seemed like a genuine guy, had played some good stuff at Wembley and the KC, and I was excited about his future in England RL.

I was very disappointed by an awful performance against Australia, but still, he's one of us.

Not any more. Completely taking the p*** out of rugby league.

They've been given exclusive rights to play a lucrative friendly against Esher RFC in 2014.

This is a win win situation for Wigan, if things go to plan then I'm sure they'll be getting something out of this I have no doubts, Sam obviously will be getting a nice little decanter set out of it only of course


I reckon Wigan would want some insurance from the RFU to cover Sam should he get injured so that would pay for his 'salary' if he couldn't play all season.
The whole thing makes a mockery of the extended salary cap allowance if the very thing the RFL were trying to avoid should happen through pure greed by one club. Could/should Sam be allowed to play 'some' union games under dual code contract could the RFL stop it, would Wigan want to stop it if they were allowing their best player to be groomed? Sharing of players & facilities is not a new thing but I can see Sam/Wigan being lured by the big clubs for a whacking great big fee.

Personally I think Joel has a far better chance of making it in onion than Sam does. I'm not so sure that onion will suit Sams abilities/individual brilliance, he's not a fullback in a million years in league, even less so in union. So that leaves him at 9 or 10 if he wants to be in the centre of things or at a push outside centre where he'll be bored to tears with the lack of ball?

I don't know what plans they have for Joel but I'd say he should be at inside centre, or blindside flanker if he wants to get really involved and make his mark on the game.

Ickle Sam is happy for another week and IL gets his quotes in the big papers.

No good will come of Wigan's tie up with Saracens or allowing their best player to go and play at Twickenham to be tapped up by the entire RFU.

Perhaps Sam will be able to pass on some info to the RFU about up and coming young league players, that would be marvellous. I'm particularly looking forward to him being interviewed and towing the RU party line about big crowds and international competition, whilst being incredibly well paid through a recent salary cap exemption to keep him in RL.

Farcical.