Contract starts in October according to the bbc. Big loss for RL

Hammer blow. Possibly one of the biggest the sport has ever taken due to the timing after what was a successful World Cup.

We had little chance of winning anything with him but we've literally got no chance without.

It's all very depressing especially given that we seem to be inviting the Union men who are raiding us in to training camps and our set up.

Take a bow Andy Farrell. I believe Sam was tapped up by Farrell whilst Faz was handing out shirts and giving motivational speeches to the squad at RLWC. IMO he's just lost his Wigan legend tag.

Farrell is doing a job I suppose and I find it hard to blame individuals when we have invited them in to our camps. We're the same with the NZ warriors tbh. We're all matey with them and Dean Bell yet to my mind any relationship only benefits one club (apart from us using their training ground for a few days).

Wigan leave themselves wide open to these raids and now the national side has as well.

What a waste.

Knob off now Sam, hope he fails.

I don't blame him for wanting to get rich. But he can hardly have been on peanuts at Souths - we were told repeatedly that he was hooked on the Sydney lifestyle and that nothing we could offer would ever lure him back home.

Bewildering.

But then I was bewildered that Joel and Kyle went to Union. Neither looked suited for it, and neither have exactly set the game alight - yet the Union-ward drift continues.

It seems as if every time we produce a genuine world star, the clock starts ticking towards his defection.

Sam next? If I were a New Zealand Warriors fan, I'd treasure those memories of the Nines. I'm not sure there'll be too many more.

I hate saying this, but I genuinely believe it's time we stopped allowing the Andy Farrells of this world into our club set-ups. Not for reasons of bloody-mindedness - as the Union did all those years ago, but because they've proved they can't be trusted.

We better get used to it because Josh Charnley is going to Union at the end of this season.

Lost all faith in the RFL, NRL and RLIF at the moment - why don't we just have done with it and join 'em? Would be good to see a Wigan RU team tear the Premiership a new one...

There is one thing worse than allowing players to leave the game - Allowing them to come back!

I find it quite humiliating that RL players can leave League knowing full well that League is so desperate for players that we will welcome them back with open arms should they fail to make it in Union.

It would make player's think twice before leaving knowing that its a one way ticket with no way back.

Any player leaving League for Union should not be able to come back - the sport is under attack and needs to take strong action!

I can't think of many who came back and picked up where they left off.

Henry Paul and Iestyn Harris were shadows of their former selves - and as for Karl Pryce and Lee Smith ... Crikey! Blokes I know who watch RU reckon Joel and Kyle are nothing like they were.

I doubt emotion will come into it. The lessons of history ought to dictate that the first thing Union does to these lads is teach them to forget how to play high-level rugby.

True but it must be of comfort knowing that they can still return and make a comfortable living out of League should they fail to adjust to Union.

Rugby League is like a comfort blanket for them.

It's only a matter of time before Joel Tomkins and Kyle Eastmond are back in RL ranks. As you've quite rightly suggested neither are anything like they were.

I suppose there is 1 exception to that "they don't come back the same" rule in Iain Thornley. Looked like he had never been away! Mind you he is young enough to adapt easily.

If they do come back, we need to make a real song and dance about it - not necessarily expressing delight, because they'll require a lot of speed to get up to SL standard, but to point out that the grass isn't always greener.

Gutted, massive loss to RL, massive waste of talent.

Good luck to him. He owes RL nothing. Anyone who says they wouldn't leave a job for a much better paid one is a lying hypocrite. How can he be getting all this abuse? If the powers that be upped their game they could stop this sort of thing from happening. If you want to wave fingers then do it aimed towards the men that run our leagues.

This 100%

Agree, BUT we as a game don't have the money and that's the point we all have to keep coming back to.

True though this may be, it doesn't mean people shouldn't be very upset that yet another star player has deserted our game.

The looking for other gigs business mid-contract is also getting a bit difficult to swallow. That rather suggests that quite a few of these players and their agents have less integrity than we'd like.

Pat Richards pointedly didn't leave Wigan until his contract was over.

True regarding Pat Richards but were similar offers on the table for him? I doubt it.

I suspect the money being offered to Burgess was significantly more than what he could get in RL.

It would actually be refreshing for player's to just come out with the truth - ambition and fresh challenges aside its all about earning as much money as possible in a short career.

I am somewhat confused as well. The NRL is cash-rich and player sponsorship does not count on their salary cap.

So if they have a poster boy there is nothing to stop them from coming to a sponsorship deal to keep him in the game.

I can only conclude they don't want to bother. Maybe if Burgess or the likes of SBW got such a deal it would put other clubs noses out of joint.

I don't know but I find it disappointing when you can actually compete money-wise like the NRL can, you don't bother.

I wonder if they are as bad when it comes to the bigger picture of marketing the game as we believe our lot are!

Why Burgess wants to try RU I am not sure.

I don't disagree, but I can't accept that players trying to duck out of contracts mid-term are not deserving of some criticism. It isn't exactly a mark of trustworthiness.

Covered pretty much by this post on the VT. This is not a new trend but it is now a constant one with no conceivable chance of being reversed.

That makes grim reading, but I don't think there's anything there I'd honestly disagree with.

I dont really see the SC as the ultimate evil, holding back RL's growth.
Too low though? Yes, for sure.
But, given our own clubs history, how many of our fast-rising youngsters would have got the chance to shine in SL if we could just buy-in anyone we wanted?
And i would include Sam in that.
I'm more excited about our future now, than for many a year!
Yawnion will continue to poach our star talent because they cant produce such high intensity athletes of their own.
Burgess is a loss to RL....... But we can & will develop more of the same in our game.
Something RU simply cant do!