When Bowen retired the other week, I thought to myself, i've not heard his name mentioned for ages in the NRL, almost like a bit of a lost soul.

I'm not surprised he's in the SL though, but I am a bit surprised wigan went in for him, he's not the class he used to be.

In saying that, sometimes a new lease of life and different lifestyle can inspire a man.

You can't have been watching the NRL that closely then.

A NZ club probably wouldn't pay an English club in AU$...

Bowen will be a good short term replacement for Tomkins. He is still going good imo.

Will be interesting what happens with Kevin Locke for NZ, I think he is pretty good. Is he moving elsewhere?

Nah it's defo £700k. Wigan have said it's a "Wigan-record transfer fee", and the fee for Fielden was £450k.

News here says we're paying him NZ $750,000 a year in wages. That's about 325k in pounds.

As an individual he'll pay NZ$240,000 in Tax on that......Auckland's not the cheapest city on the planet, but he should be able to get by on NZ$10,000 a week after tax



Jury's still out on whether we needed him and he's not joining a particularly happy camp at present....
[urlhttp://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/9194971/NZ-Warriors-face-player-upheavals-in-offseason[/url

Given that Tomkins' options would have included big money to go to RU, this move is the best option for the sport.

As for Bowen, he's looked a shadow of his former self at times this year, and apparently basically does almost no training between games due to his knees being wrecked. He can still be a devastating player on attack though.

spot on!

Bowen is bloody good on Bullseye though

Stay in the black and out of the red......oh, hang on, you're a Bradford fan!

It's A$1.2M, which = 700K pounds.

Bowen will be a good pickup, if only as a mentor for Wigan's young players. Assume Locke will end up at Canterbury

Rumor is Locke is going to the dogs replacing Babar, Bowen is still very good and will do a job for us over here his style of play will fit in very well and give Hampshire another season to take the step up

It's actually £390k in current market rates.

For comparison, the "cashed up" French RU leagues tenth highest earner, Matt Giteau, the seasoned RU international, is on the equivalent of NZ $780,000 per season.

This is a great deal for Sam and out strips anything he could have got elsewhere - unless the french really are that mad that they would have offered him the same as Giteau, having never played Union before!!

According to Radio 4 this morning

Ian Lenegan said the figure was "in excess" of £500

I should think so as well

Bowen has been playing great during the playoffs, he's lost some pace but his ball playing is the best I have seen from him this year.

Good signings and deals all around. Warriors. needed a big name to push on with crowds, especially if they move to the new stadium.

i am really excited to see bowen play even if it means sam is leaving, he is a quality player and will bring a huge amount of experience and help the 2 young fullbacks develop.

good luck sam i hope he makes it in the NRL, but he has only gone for the money.

During the playoffs? He's only played in one match



I can't wait to see how Sam gets on in the NRL. The Warriors are one of my favourite teams to watch due to their playing style, he should fit in well.

Cowboys sudden death games started about 5 weeks ago!

they had to win their last 4 regular games to get into the play offs and he played well even in the defeat. but i agree with you on the warriors style its great as well as highly frustrating.

wooooosh, totally forgot (god knows how) the fact that NZ Warriors are in fact in NZ!

Why are so many writing this above ?

It's not as if Wigan have no one else around to mentor is it ?

They only have past players/full backs on the coaching staff like Steve Hampson and Kris Radlinski among many others already at the club.

Matt Bowen is a better player than either of those two ever were.

Smart ar*3






£500 [size=200k[/size

And is Bowen articulate ? I have no idea if he is or not.

Radlinski is. And GB haven't had a better fullback for many a year than Radlinski.

To use this 'mentoring' as an excuse for signing a 'marquee' player is 'scraping the barrel' IMHO.