This dewy-eyed Rugby Union love-in is all very touching, but the reality is that RU's colossal spending-power - which has nothing whatever to do with homely little Welsh villages where they once hacked 'stand-off-halves' out of the coal - could destroy us in short order if Sale win this power struggle and Solomona is allowed to 'retire' from RL without his new RU paymasters having to pay a transfer fee.

I think we RL fans - and those among us who profess to be RL fans - should perhaps be a little more worried than we are.

Not sure why we need to be worried. Maybe I'm missing something?

Worst case scenario Solomona has nothing in his contract stopping him from retiring and joining sale ru. Fair enough cas get shafted in this one.

All new rugby league contracts have a clause stopping this from happening again. Existing RL players contracts have an addendum added also.

It's not suddenly a flood gate oppened. We get burned, learn our lesson and put measures in place to stop it occurring again. Just my thoughts.

Remember that players have to sign contracts in the first place.

You could insist on some kind of clause that they cannot retire whilst under contract until it is medically proven that they cannot play competitive sport again, but how many would agree to that - especially when they've got agents like Andy Clark, whose sole purpose it seems is to steer all his best players ultimately to the big bucks of RU?

In addition, quite a few of our top players are already serving contracts that will NOT have any such clause in them, so they could get snaffled first.

Personally, I'd rather the court just ruled that contracts need to be respected. In the real world, you'd expect nothing else - but British RL never seems to enjoy any of the perks of the real world.

I've always been a rugby league fan first and foremost but I am also a rugby fan secondary. Speak to any rugby fan and they have nothing but praise for rugby league. Speak to your average rugby league fan about rugby and they have absolute distain for the game for absolutely no reason other than Chris Ashton signed for rugby, completely forgetting what happened in the 80s. The best of it is rugby overall, Has surpassed rugby league on the pitch and not just off it. I find it hard to stay awake watching league but there were lots of exciting rugby games last season all over the world. Even the SA club comp surpasses super league skill wise

Regards
King James

It must have improved since I was last in South Africa, where there seemed to be little else on TV.

Sport of any kind is always subjective. What you can't deny is that rugby league has been held back by the salary cap which currently stands at about 10,000 negative Rpi. Wigan did more for RL in the late 80s and early 90s than anyone and then the salary cap came in and rewarded mediocrity. Since the. Rugby has just left rugby league for dead

Regards

King James

We can argue the toss over RU v RL all day and get nowhere, the truth is

1. RL is a small game and always will be in this country, it is played in a very small, northern geographical area and is not played in any of the major conurbations or richer areas unlike RU.

2. RL is, in money terms, way, way behind the times in this country compared to RU and also in terms of perceived prestige (to the general public and TV).

3. RL is (and sadly for a long time) has been governed by people with no vision, no ambition and no long term plan. And is held back constantly by those who see surviving as the limit of their ambition.

Until and unless the impossible of all three of the above changing then Rl will always be nothing more than minority sport - despite all of it's fans trying to think otherwise.

As to the Solomona case - sadly I suspect that Cas will come out of it with little to show. Contracts seem to be worth very little these days anywhere.

They are both "rugby" one is league and the other union. I can't remember either code having copyright to the name "rugby"

I'm studying hard to find where union has surpassed league on the pitch? I still see union as dull now as it was 30yrs ago, the idea in either code is to score tries but this doesn't seemed to have cottoned on in union.

Arguably RL in this country was better to watch 30 years ago.

Sadly I have to agree

The old games on Wigan TV are bringing that home to me. But I suppose it's partly the tactics, and partly the players avaialble too. There just aren't players of the quality of Edwards, Gregory, Hanley, Sculthorpe etc in SL these days, more's the pity.

On union, I haven't bothered looking up stats, but it seems to me (based on watching internationals and TV highlights of club matches during our close season) that there is a bit more try-scoring than their used to be. Precision of handling skills in general attacking play, although improved, still looks some way below even SL's reduced standard now.

RU has improved with all the influx of RL coaches in their game since they went pro.

The fact you are getting so wound up about one player who has half ONE decent season shows how far rugby league has fallen behind rugby. Rugby could lose 10 wingers who at better than solomona and not bat an eye lid

Regards

King james

Keep drinking.

In another 24 hours you might feel motivated to give me a 3rd response to my post.

absolute bollox union will never surpass on the pitch, league fans dont watch union because the ball in is play 55% of the time in general and they say league is too stop start. There is too much kicking and too much emphasis on set plays so they lose an awful lot of basic skills. They find it hard to run and pass at the same time, thats not a dig but a fact. I played both and couldnt believe how easy union is due to me able to play with a basic skill set.

they dont have 10

It isn't rugby anymore than it is the Rugby World Cup. It is rugby union which is a kicking not a handling game.

A good example of this is George North, awesome RU winger by the way. I watched him attempt to draw the last defender and pass to his team mate and it was like watching someone who'd never played rugby doing it, it was embarrassing, it came off though but it was ugly rugby.

The same can be said with most RU players other than scrum halves, fly halves and centres, everyone else has appaling passing skills whereas from 1-13 on an RL field they're all decent ball handlers.

On another note I've been a fierce critic of what I used to call Rugby Yawnion but I'd say internationally is is better to watch than any SL game other than Wigan, that's because I'm biased. It has come on leaps and bounds due to RL becoming too sterile. They stopped hooking at scrums and PTBs, too many subs, all teams run the same attacking plays, stand to far back so that the attacking line isn't deep anymore.

I was talking to a mate the other week just before Eng v Aus and I said I would rather watch any GB v Aus match from the 80s or 90s, even early 2000s than the forth coming game because it has got so sterile and robotic.

How many rule changes have football, rugby union, boxing, cricket, tennis etc had over the last 50 years? Now compare that to RL and we look like a laughing stock who don't know what we're doing. The super 8s confuse me and I've followed RL all my life.

What we need is someone like Eddie Hearn to get involved with RL, he's worked wonders with boxing just like his dad did and he's making the big fights which Frank Warren would have held back on for years.

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always had. Time to get rid of Nigel and the rest of the mob and get someone in like Eddie Hearn.

I would argue that RU has always had the upper hand financially, it's just that now the players are benefitting from the cash generated by the game rather than the bunch of old farts at Twickers.

I remember going to Twickers for the cross code challenge with Bath and wondered how an amateur game could afford such a nice stadium in such an expensive area of London.

Should have seen the old arms park inside during the 80's. It was like a palace for the time start of the art equipment boardrooms etc.

As you say union has had the money but now its going to the players instead of committee men who line their friends pockets rather than the players.

Agree about George North, the lionising of him by the union commentators is a mystery to me; he's a biggish lad who runs hard, but certainly doesn't look anything special.

Union does have a lot of good wingers in the Solomona mode. I have always thought that winger was a position that Union did not have to poach, but Sale know better. Big South Sea Islanders with good hands are not a rarity. I think that we are making Solomona out to be something that he is not. He is certainly not a Martin Offiah and he benefitted from the quality service that he was getting. Recently I have watched a fair bit of Union, I have been impressed by some of the handling in the backs but in the forwards they seem to have gone backwards from my days.

no they dont, their basic skill are embarassing, nuless you think kicking and catching are good...

I bow to your superior logic. Your argument is difficult to disprove given you complete lack of anything even remotely like sense. Shouting loudly and slurring your words just makes you sound like an old drunk.
Winger is not a passing position, even in Rugby League, wingers are runners who may occasionally need to pass. Yes kicking and catching are essential in the armoury of a top class winger. According to pieman it is not important for a winger to be able to catch the ball, that might explain a lot. Solomona is no half back but like most rugby league wingers he tackles well in the line. The problem is that he will be working in a different environment. We have seen that differences are enough to make a world beater at one code look average at the other. He will not look like a world beater in Union until he shows that he can beat a man and certainly will take time to be as good as Marlon Yard, Christian Wade, Ken Sio and his brother etc. I would have any of them at Wigan even if Wade cannot tackle.
Sale have looked to Super League because they are one of the few Rugby Union teams without very good wingers, many of the South Sea Islanders who grow up playing sevens and have excellent ball handling skills. That does not mean that they have enough opportunity to show it. It is telling that English RU are not producing enough talent and are buying in foreigners to fill the gaps. I hope that that never happens in Super League.


It is not very long ago that this very forum was waxing lyrical about how George North was coming to us and how brilliant he was. It is also not so long ago that Joe Burgess was described as looking like he had been tazered when he tried to pass. That came with practice.