IL and Sam have nailed their colours to the mast, or so we thought, by coming out in public saying Sam is exclusively a league player for at least three years and can't even speak to RU or the NRL before then.

IL's credibility has already taken a severe dent in many fans eyes because of this game but if he were to agree to Sam leaving early I doubt the usual platitudes of not standing in a players way would wash. You can't be so categoric about a player being bound to the club and them expect people to think none the worse of you if you then sell the player, particularly after you put him the shop window.

Says who?

If there is someone has been lying.

So if this is the most positive thing to happen in RL since SL inception would you be happy to see Sam and other top rugby league players play more Union games. Why stop at a one off game, if this is such a positive thing for RL why dont we just send our elite players whenever Union come calling.



Lets go the full wack and send Wigan and other elite youngsters to the england saxons squad. Or how about we send RL's finest players to the england RU 7's camp. I mean if we want RU to accept our skills we have to send our players to play Rugby Union according to you as it is positive for Rugby League.

Instead of showing off our great game, lets just create a Rugby Union side full of Rugby League players and play the union code, maybe then the Rugby Union World would accept our game.



At least our friends in Australia have some backbone. They would have never let this happen!

Big 2 fingers up show boating in rugby union instead of taking a couple of weeks off and resting up ready for a big pre season at wigan. This will just lead to potential injury. Needless injury at that.

Dis respectful to wigan and their fans. The club should have said no.

Did you actually read the post I was responding to and ignore what I was trying to say or did you just ignore it all completely?

iv not read the whole thread but tbh i think its a total waste of time this game. sam's got 4 days training with a group of people hes never seen before then hes playing a game hes never played before(unless someone here knows more than me) so i really dont know what hes expecting to get out of it.

considering all the hype over his new contract ect, i can understand why fans of other clubs would have alot of negative things to say about him

Judging by the posts on the official club facebook status this is a very unpopular decision.

[urlhttps://www.facebook.com/WiganWarriorsFanPage[/url

Yes I read it. " If Sam wants to leave and there is a way out of his contract, ..." is plain English. If there is a way out of his contract that is supposed to be watertight for three years we have been lied to.

Actually, the more I think about this, the more it seems possible that this could be a rather clever way to get quite a lot of extra cash into Sam's bank account, without it counting on the salary cap.

The injury factor is clearly a risk, but then so is going on an adventure holiday and we don't stop the lads doing that in their off-time. This may well have been cooked up during the recent negotiations.

I regarded it as a disaster when I first heard about it, but now I'm not so sure.

Get a grip of your emotions. He hasn't suddenly left. This is a brilliant opportunity to get one over RU. All the publicity will be focused on Sam, Wigan and RL. This is a master stroke of publicity and Sam is still a Wigan player.

Wendell Sailor and Sonny Bill played for the Barbars when they were league players.

If Lenegan said that to try to hold off interest in him then I'd be glad he lied to the fans and everyone else. In that hypothetical situation, if there really was no way of making his contract absolutely watertight I'd be glad that he tried to keep interest in him to a minimum. Not that there's any reason to doubt what Ian Lenegan has said about the contract. He'll be here for 3 years I imagine.

^ a million times!!

Please explain HOW he earns a lot of extra cash? In none of the articles does it say he is being paid. He might get a match fee but what wil that be £2k? £5k - hardly a kings ransom,

If the answer you give to your own question there is correct, then I'd agree. But as you're clearly surmising, then we're no further on.

I'm only putting forward a possible explanation. I'll never be able to prove it's correct, as we'll never see the details of Sam's private deal with the RU people, but then you'll never be able to prove that it isn't.

That is simply incorrect they had both just converted to Union at the time. It is FACT Sam Tomkins is the first player contracted to rugby league to ever play for the Barbarians.

It'll all end in tears

The depressing truth is that Sam will receive more mentions in the national media due to his participation in a meaningless exhibition game than he has over his whole career winning trophies and performing for his national team.

That both saddens and angers me no end.

I have heard that Sam will be payed more than the Wigan club for this game.

Change the salary cap rules and then his boyhood club can sign him and he can emulate his hero Langer and still stay in League everyone's a winner except union

It may or may not have been mentioned in this thread, but it shows how desperate rugby union are.

The Barbarians are the best of the best, the cream of the union crop. If they can't fill that team with their own talent and need to look at the more athletic, mature brother in rugby league then so be it.

It speaks more about their game than it does ours - we know ours is better, and now they do too.

Sam must be ing himself - he's got nothing to lose.

^^This.

It's like a job interview for him for his move to union.

It does seem like a form of apprenticeship before he lands the big job in 3 years time.

being honest cruncher i didnt think it was a disaster when it was first announced, i just think after all the comments sam made about not liking union ect hes now give people more reason to dislike him even more!