Well if nothing else, I will be tuning into my first RU match in years on Saturday.

Not happy about this.

How does it benefit us apart from a bit of recognition? It will just get more people interested in signing him and fuel more rumours

Ditto.

I'll still feel dirty watching it though.

Maybe we could get Bilko to edit out all the boring stuff and just show his highlights.

no point in telling you why it would benefit wigan as i have read your rules of moderating

....

o'well i will give it a go, if sam has an amazing game the rugby union fans will see that there is a sport like theirs with better players and more entertaining to watch when they follow his performance for wigan.. people only have to see other boards outside rlfans to see that there is a rise in rugby league outside the heartlands and very much from other professional sports players.

Rugby league needs to capitalise on the interest created from the 4nations and there is no harm in this experiement.

I've said before that if Sam did go to Union then I would be more inclined to watch the games he featured in. He could be lethal and tear teams apart.

We shouldn't miss an opportunity for Sam Tomkins to get some recognition and media attention. He's a rugby league player for the next three years and if he has a good game then it should hopefully generate even more interest in him.

He will switch codes in three years time, I think that's almost a certainty. Right now we should just be doing whatever we can to get our best players the recognition they deserve and hopefully show a wider audience that the most talented rugby players are here in rugby league and not the 15 man game.

thanks for that. It sounds alot better than the teams moaning you cant raise the cap because we cant afford the one in place already. this is the biggest down fall of no relegation clubs are starting to feel to safe with no real threat.

its either this or cut the league to ten teams and all the extra cash from the RFL should be spent on development within schools and ameture clubs.

I am sure in 3 years time maguire will be throwing alot of NRL money at him as there cap will be higher than unions.

Lets hope. Would much prefer him to stay in RL.

I'm not sure he'd move to Australia. If an NRL club could offer him big money then that's brilliant, hopefully they'd compete with union clubs for his signature. It would be better for the game if he remained in league and went to the NRL but I think realistically he won't be a Wigan player in 3 years time. If that's the case we should do everything we can to make sure we get what we're owed for him.

Who knows maybe by some miracle in 3 years superleague will have developed and found a way to keep him at wigan.

Maybe, but I don't see any way for Wigan to be able to match what union clubs would be able to pay him. We might find the money from somewhere, but we can't end up paying Sam say £500,000 a year and keeping the rest of the squad on their current earnings. It's not right and we're dangerously close to that with Sam's new contract already.

There would need to be enough to increase the contracts of most of our playing staff which would require big salary cap changes. That would need clubs lower down to find investment so they can somehow start paying up to the current cap limit and that's just not going to happen.

There just isn't the money in British rugby league to keep players with such a high profile.

Maybe Sam could help Latics win a game or two before Xmas as well?

Now you're just being daft, he's not a miracle worker!

I dont know if we do get an average attendence of 20k could we afford that? i see all this as ian trying to find those extra fans. it maybe high risk but with high rewards or very little reward but ian wont die wondering thats for sure.

Sam is rugby league crazy when he isn't with wigan he is helping st pats so i can see him really missing league if he went to union where as joel seems to be totally different and its no surprise if he did ask wigan to let him go.

So Sam Tomkins extends his contract by another year, agrees to have no contact with RU or the NRL for three years, but within less than two weeks he's agreed to play in a one off Union match at Twickers? Hypocrite.

Not only does he risk needless injury and burn out, we also run the risk of having his head turned before he's even played a game since his new contract. Wigan RL gain nothing from this. The media/RU population wont be admiring RL talent. They'll be talking about how Union will soon have this boy playing for them. It's embarrassing. This is about coaxing Sam Tomkins to Rugby Union. Showing him off to the RU clubs and trying to snare him over. He may have agreed not to speak to anyone for three years, but are you telling me if he laps it up next weekend he will really want to wait for three years? This is the most ridiculous decision Ian Lenagan has ever made.

Sam Tomkins is NOT bigger than this club. He should have either said no (as agreed in the terms of his contract) or Wigan should have refused to let him go. If this creates unrest - tough sh-t. He's the highest paid player in British Rugby League. The lad only TWO WEEKS ago signed a new contract stating he wouldn't speak to other RU clubs and now he's off to play in a one off match of RU at Twickers! Humiliating for RL and humiliating for Wigan. Not only has RU cherry picked Joel Tomkins out of his FIVE YEAR contract, but because of RU's influence we've had to add stipulations to Sam Tomkins' contract and within a fortnight RU have convinced Sam/Wigan to break those terms so he can go off and play RU for a weekend.

It's like whoring your girlfriend out for a weekend. Madness. We might as well bend over and let RU give it to us.

Where's the backbone in RL? Why bendover backwards for them and allow this to happen? How about when they come slithering around asking if our most prize asset in English Rugby League can play for the Rah-rah's in a one off match we politely turn around and tell them to 'feck off' - he's an RL player. Could you imagine them letting a top RU name come and play for the Exiles mid-season?

Madness.

I just think if we try too hard to keep Tomkins and just keep raising his wages then the other players would get pretty ed off and have every right to. Tomkins is a big name but he's not bigger than the club.

The salary cap will hold Wigan back anyway in terms of what we could potentially pay him regardless of how much money Wigan make.

If this sport is going to strengthen it's position to fight off interest in the best players from union it's probably going to be a long term process and will require much more money in the game at all levels and for all clubs.

The only quick fix I think could work would be central contracts for England players, but I think Sam is curious when it comes to union and I doubt anything will stop him from switching.

Joel chose to leave himself and instigated the move.

I suppose the only plus side is that it gives us something to watch this coming Saturday afternoon.

i hardly think it was a dream of his. more likely after his agent became part of the union group he was weened onto the idea. although i am completely hypothesising here.

I've not read through all this thread, though I'm getting the general vibe of inevitably towards Sam's eventual departure.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that this stunt is pretty much Tomkins and Lenegan whoring themselves to Union to the highest bidder (and I'm talking pretty soon and not this supposed 3 year period).....Let's face it, if he looks even half decent in this game, then Union clubs are going to be throwing mega bucks Wigan's way.

Can I just ask as an outsider, what will the fans reaction to Lenegan be, if the worst did happen and Tomkins was sold sooner than originally proposed, e.g. 2012 was his last season??.....Would the consolation of a huge fee and then maybe the purchase of a star player from down under, soften the blow or would the fans turn on a chairman, who I've always presumed was relatively popular?

Lenegan won't have done anything wrong. If Sam wants to leave and there is a way out of his contract, even with the apparent 3 year safety net, then there's not much that Ian Lenegan could do.

In fact the only sensible action would be to get Wigan as much money for him as possible.

Its fair to say though that Lenegan has been at the forefront of all this brown-nosing RU lark??....He's obviously very involved in this particular stunt, for what purposes, good or bad, I don't think anybody really knows.

I struggle to believe that a guy with Wigan's best on-field interests at heart, would be party to this blatant advert of Tomkins' talent to future employers.

I think that recent contract he signed is a lot more complex than was originally suggested...

I reckon people need to get over it and realise he is playing, and it should be very intersting to watch how the game pans out.