Is Sam moonlighting as a hairdresser?

Not many 22 year olds own a car worth £14,000 never mind the insurance he would be paying on it. And as for the retiring at 32 with nothing to do look at the likes of Andy Coley going in to Quantity Surveying, a charted surveyor is on good wages he has left Rugby League into a job that pays a fair bit higher than the average job. Paul Prescott has a law degree and many other Rugby League players do part time degree courses. As good as it sounds to be retired for the rest of your life at 32 would not satisfy you, leaving a great sport and team with a strong legacy into full time employment would give a person a lot more satisfaction in their life.

Correct. You'd struggle to name a retired RL player who no longer works full time for a living.
Some go into coaching, some are lucky enough to get into broadcasting (Clarke, Carney, O'Connor, Barry Mac) some become landlords of a pub. Had Jason Robinson not become a superstar in RU he would have no doubt chosen a similar path.

Wigan started a programme a few years ago to put players through courses / university degrees so that they could earn a good living after retirement.

It is a 2.5i i think. Just scrapes through the "mince'ometer". Only just



Joel has a A3 if you are interested. The use the same car wash as me on Woodhouse lane.

For you it may lead to satisfacttion in life, But can you also speak for every professional rugby league player? Andy Coley as I understand it has been involved with quantity surveying part time for a long time. Probably fully aware that once his rugby league career was over he'd need something to pay the bills. To go from being a full time rugby league player to retiring and having to start again at a later age, regardless of qualifications is probably no easy task. Personally I'd love to be able to have enough money to retire at 32 and not worry about working to pay the bills. The choice is then mine if I want to be more satisfied and working... or having to struggle working as a window cleaner to get by...... (no offence to any window cleaners meant btw,,,

)

Saw Sam driving a white Infiniti FX through Orrell t'other day. They're £47k new

No it wouldn't. The court would not injunct an employee to work for an employer they didn't want to work for (that's forced labour) and a court would be unlikely to issue an injunction preventing Sam from playing for Saracens or any other RU club (since that would have effectively the same result), you would need to be able to show some very special damage to the club to have a remote chance of getting an injunction. The employer's remedy would almost certainly be damages, which of course a rich RU club like Sarries could pay. So IL would be forced to do a deal and take compensation (effectively a transfer fee) from Sarries. The 5 yr contract will help IL in bargaining terms to get a bigger settlement fee, but if he wants to go to a club like Saracens, he will go.

Did it have Saracens on the side?

Must have changed it then with the RFU cash he has been bunged

. Got to d=say the Infiniti is possibly the ugliest car on the road at the moment. The lad has no taste.

At least Joel has some taste choosing Audi, even if it's only an A3.

No that's Joel's new Maserati

I saw joel driving the Quin's club motor. The flash git

He isn't many 22 year olds though. He is the best English player in his sport. He should have a fleet of top of the range cars and his face should be on billboards, Beer mats and kids cereals all over the place. I've been watching rugby league for 22 years and he's as talented a player as we've produced in that time.

He deserves the riches that 'should' come with that talent but he won't get them in the current set up in league.

I wish I was a rich business man. I would glady pay the lad an extra couple of hundred grand a year to stay at the club in a sponsorship deal.

I sort of see where you're coming from, but I still think the whole 'game being threatened by this' notion is laced with hysteria.

Firstly, I don't think a 'mass exodus' will materialise. The numbers of players moving over is always going to be relatively small. Is anyone going to not renew their season ticket because Joel Tomkins won't be at Wigan? Are they going to start watching RU instead? That's a genuine question - I don't think so, but you may disagree.

Secondly, the threat of a talent drain, in my estimation, is nothing compared to the damage that could be done if you let RL clubs start getting into a bidding war to keep these players. You only have to look at the numbers on this thread to realise that. £400k a season! Jesus wept...

It's one thing to bemoan RL's lack of financial pulling power (and a perfectly valid observation - I agree the game needs a fresh approach, new leadership and new ideas - but that's a different discussion.) Sadly I sense a more naive, panic-stricken tone among many comments on this thread suggesting that we need to take the shackles off clubs and allow them to spend what they want to spend to keep these players. That money just [uisn't there[/u. I wish it was! If the money was there, who could possibly dispute that the players deserve more money for the risks they take for our entertainment? I don't say this to score points - the vast majority of clubs, including my own, and I dare say including Wigan, live hand to mouth as it is. Where is the extra money going to come from?

How many clubs made a profit this year? Genuine question. How many could afford to spend extra money on incentivising players to stay in the code? But how many would let their ambition get the better of them, convince themselves they needed to keep players at all costs, and spend it anyway?

In closing I reiterate my own opinion, and it's only that, and I totally respect anyone who disagrees. As long as the clubs are protected from themselves, as long as we the fans remain loyal to the clubs and to the game, rugby league will be fine. We've coped with losing players in the past and we will again.

Your correct a player could leave our club under the Bosman ruling, effectively we couldn't hold the Tomkins brother at our club if they demanded to leave. The optimum option for IL would be to sell the two, I do feel now it appears they shall be moving onto pastures new the 5 year deals were mainly to ensure we got money from their transfers to Union.

Taken from Richie Mathers' twitter:

"@youngquest3 correct... 4 x the pay for half the effort... #showmetheway"

Not that Richie will find himself being courted by any union teams in the near future, but that attitude from our players sums up the problem we have in our sport. If that's the attitude of players if makes you wonder what the point is?

I think that sums up Richie "fanboy" Mathers' more than it does our players.

I was told that Sam is now driving an A5

Some one needs to take to Twitter and confirm Sam's current mode of transport, last time I saw him he was driving that flashy BMW.

I don't think you are right. If a contract is broken the injured party can seek to be put into the position they would be in if the contract were not broken.

Sam's had a red Audi A5 for a decent while now but has just changed his car i think. Some sort of convertible my Mam saw him in it and Hoff mentioned something on twitter about him being lucky with the good weather week or two ago.

Got to say i'm gutted to see Joel move he was immense in our GF winning season at second row and i think people forget just how good he was due to being forced into the centres this year.

The Bosman ruling has nothing to do with this situation. That ruling stopped clubs restricting what [uout of contract[/u players could do. It gave [uout of contract[/u players freedom of movement and stopped clubs preventing that by demanding transfer fees.

Joel is not an out of contract player so this does not apply.

The remedy for breach of contract would be damages. An injunction is a discretionary remedy, which I just don't think a court would grant in these circumstances. Damages are available however and that's what Wigan would receive by way of remedy.

Agreed

Makes you wonder if it is just down to money. I really do think that RL players have no interest in actually playing Union. It all comes down to $$$

Is Wigan now just seen as a feeder club to english Rugby Union these days??