Quote ="tommyfromhull"Stanley Gene to fill in the forward role? Oh no, wait... news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 249269.stm'" 37?

Quote ="tommyfromhull"Stanley Gene to fill in the forward role? Oh no, wait... news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 249269.stm'" 37?

Rule gone?

Not a rumour - see the other thread

Heard we are after Misi Taulapapa after his impact at Rovers.

Think will give Misi a miss!!

Broughton is faster than Sharp and is the better winger,oh, and I was at the Warrington match.

I agree Broughton is the faster player, but that's not saying that Sharp isn't fast because he is.
I like Broughton and wouldn't mind him at the club at all. But Sharp was made a scape goat last season by Agar, we need to give Sharp another season because I have faith that he will come good and we don't need to waste time on looking at getting another winger in. Give him another season and then if it's a bad one then look to replace him.

Sharp was made a scapegoat by the fans - including several on here - after making a couple of huge errors that cost games that could have seen the team finish higher in the table. Admittedly it was perplexing why he was kept on the bench so many times and given two minutes at the end of games - I could accept the "replacement back in case of injury" reason up to a point but...

Scott moore signed for Widnes

Sam is absolute class and will be a massive loss to Super League.

The salary cap needs to be looked at to try and stop our best young players leaving for RU.

Also international RL needs looking at.

Joel T to Saracens for £400k a season is looking nailed on now. I can only assume the RFU will be funding part of that - as a game we just can't compete with that.

According to a very liable source Sam T was offered £500k a season to go to Saracens but has turned it down and told them his price was £1m and he wouldn't discuss until after the 4 Nations - they are coming back to him after the 4 Nations with an offer he can't refuse.

Given the state of the England RU side I can see them panicking and throwing money at other young RL players as well.

Mate just told me there was an article in League Weekly yesterday where Mccrae stated our recruitment is complete. Did anyone else read this?

Massive shame for Wigan and the sport in general (whatever people say about those two as characters) if this happens. There's really not a lot English RL can do about it though, if you changed the salary cap to accommodate these situations you'd have to do it across the board, and some clubs would use that rope to hang themselves in the long run.

I won't be sorry to see the back of him. Ronaldo is a classy footballer, but I never enjoyed watching him because of his horrendous attitude. Sam Tomkins falls into the same category.

Unions salary cap is £4m so that's a hell of a slice out of their cap or does that include England appearance money etc.

He's arrogant but i don't mind that.

I can't remember the last time this Country produced a player so naturally gifted and hats of to Wigan for that.

The only player I dislike is Ryan Bailey, Jon Wilkin spoke about him after the Grand Final and what he said about the fool was very interesting.

Yer, Wilkin has an unfortunate habit of whinging after their grand final defeats though. He's spot on about Bailey (I bet half the Leeds team agree with him), but he needs to choose his moments more carefully.

The RFU are contributing to the £400k is what I've been told.

The union cap has a number of clauses so it's actually considerably more than £4m if you use it wisely, e.g. A "marquee" player doesn't count at all (it has to be either an overseas player or someone who has come through the club's academy - so that wouldn't be Tomkins), the first £30k of X number of players who have come through the club's academy doesn't count etc.

If unknown novices like tomkins are really getting £400k a year to play union then no wonder England were a flop at the world cup. The current internationals must all be earning close to 7 figures so no wonder they can't be assed to put any effort in on the field

Apart from the All Blacks rugby union is a dour game.

It bores me to tears, what your watching might appear like they can't be d, it isn't it's how the game is played.

its a pity in this country that union is the darling of the upper class.if union was just based in the north of england you would never hear of it.

I think it's the other way round. England were crap at the World Cup so let's chuck money at the problem.

Only the very very top players in the world would be earning anything like that and that would have to include sponsorship deals to get any where near that figure.

It'll be interesting to see how he goes, if he does move.

What are you saying that there is a class system in England



RU at club level in England is not that big attendence wise maybe Leicester apart.

It tells you everything when the England RU team (who play awful rugby by the way) have a national stadium (Twickenham).

In my humble opinion it's not a class divide it's a North South divide!

The money RU get's compared to RL is unbelievable, and the media coverage no comment.

The Grand Final attracted around 70,000 people on Saturday and yet the media coverage was minimal.

If it had of being leicester v bath with a crowd of 60,000 it would have recieved massive media coverage

If only the top players in the world earn that then I'm guessing the figure is wildly exaggerrated. he's hardly a star name in RL terms. Let's be honest, you don't need to offer someone 5X their current earnings to turn their head

I would be very surprised if he was going to get £400k per annum - especially in this country. He might get closer to that figure in France but not over here.

I was chatting to a Leeds RU player not that long ago and asked him if he'd even considered switching codes. He said he wouldn't take the pay cut.

The disparity is a shame but, with the colossal cash cow that is international rugby union, I fear it's only going to get bigger.