I don't think there's any danger of a break-away in Rugby League, with a bunch of top clubs agreeing to some kind of 'no salary cap' situation. Too many of our clubs, including several of our top clubs, benefit from the salary cap because they haven't got any cash. Wigan themselves, though well financed, now take a more pragmatic view to the salary cap.

However, a break-away in Union, to match the spending of the French clubs, might conceivably happen - though I don't know enough about Union to comment with authority on this.

Congratulations.

Thanks and why your at it can you get me a gold star off one of your window licking friends please?

It will be the first of many departures to come I think. Especially if they keep freezing the salary cap.

has the bit about players wages only counting for half after they've been with the club for 10 years always been in there?

If so how far off are any of our players? I know not many are that old, but when do they count people like lockers being at the club from?

The clubs voted to freeze it.

Were Wigan one of those that voted for the freeze, or were they looking for an increase?

No idea, but the official line coming out of the RFL is...

[iClubs decided against a rise in the salary cap for the 2010 season due to the current economic climate and the fact that last June they agreed to a £50,000 rise for this season. As always clubs will have the opportunity to review the salary cap limit again this time next year.[/i

42 trys in 88 games in different positions, Harry Sunderland award, International honours, 2 x GF winner.

Karl Pryce my a**e, another blinkered Wigan fan.

Karl Pryce

Bradford Bulls 47 Games 33 Tries

Another leeds ar$e.

So you trying to say he should be listed in the same category of players such as Robinson and Farrell then?

He falls right into the category the op suggested -Good young player with a good future in front of him but hardly the finished article or a superstar.

Ands it’s us that are biased

He's played about 50 games in 6 1/2 years as a pro, go Karl.

If you can call me an can I call you a pr1ck?

i'm not comparing him to karl pryce now, i'm comparing him to karl pryce before he went to union. Imo Pryce had the bigger potential out of the two, he hasn't fulfilled it one bit but he had it.

Pryce is pants now, never disputing that.

Smith is a good player, but he's nothing extraordinary, certainly not even comparable to the likes or Robinson and Farrell, nor will he ever be.

Who compared him to Farrell and Robinson???????

I just happen to disagree, what more does Smith have to do in RL to not be "A Good young player with a good future in front of him "?

Karl Pryce didn't attain full international honours before he went to Union.

He didn't play in a Grand Final, let alone win a Harry Sunderland trophy in one.

You may have seen more potential in Pryce back then but its' hard to quantify why.

Smith's is a top quality outside back and a loss to RL. Not a loss to Leeds. We have plenty of quality coming through in the three-quarters.

Farrell was at the tail end of his career when he went to Union so in a sense he wasn't as big a loss.

Become more than a good young player with a good future ahead of him

So at the same point in their respective careers Smith had played nearly twice as many games wining consecutive grand finals playing a major role in different positions and also had international honors.

If you want to talk about extraordinary players, how many British “extraordinary” players can you name currently playing?

I can't be bothered looking at the RFL web site but as with the "2nd tier players" who areoutside the main £1.6m salary cap there is a limit to how much you can benefit from the 10 year rule. So if you had, say for such long serving players and 50% of their wages came to £110K then you would only get something like £50K of that not counting in the cap.

What has happened with the salary cap is that when it came in at £1.8m there have been several changes one of which was a reduction in to £1.7m and then £1.6m when NI contributions were removed from it (which in theory makes it worth the same a £1.7m cap).

When it did go down the idea was it was indexed linked but I think it has only had the index link increase applied once. What has happened is when other changes were to the rules made such as not counting the wages of junior players who are not one of the clubs 1st or 2nd tier players they used this as an excuse for forgo the index link increase.

I never hear this index linking mentioned any more so I think it may have quietly been pushed under the carpet and done away with.

It certainly suits clubs with at the lower end of the financial scale but even the most ardent pro-cap person has got to accept that at some point it must increase. It is no use saying we can't compete with RU anyway so we may as well leave the cap at £1.6m. This is just simply preventing players from doing what most of us expect in our working lives - get a pay rise to cover the increased cost of living.

Dave

Damn, that's me too embarrassed to sleep tonight.

Smiths in a very very good team, thats why he's been in two consecutive grand finals.

And sadly i can't name many British extraordinary players, which shows the sad or our international side.

Same Point!

Pryce was 19 & Smith is 22!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hardly the same point! If Pryce had stayed In RL theres no doubt in my mind he would have an equal if not better record!

But don't worry, let Union Ruin him then we can take him back ala Pryce & Walker etc and we can pick up the pieces when theyv'e had enough of them!
Why should we worry abpout RU though!

As for the other bit, Exactly! But yet we keep getting told that were producing better players!

There speaks the attitude that will eventually sink Rugby League.

And you lot used to accuse us of being arrogant.

Never mind. Keep it up son. The RFL (sadly) will be proud of you.

But not at the point when he left!

You know your wrong, just admit it!

Don't talk soft, he's a gutless waster.