Maybe he's not a bitter RL fan who hates everything Union does..Maybe his only thought was the unique experience thats been offered to him..maybe he was to honoured to be the first RL player to be asked he felt he couldn't turn it down.

Who knows and frankly who cares..like i said,until IL and Sam are made out to be liars about his new contract then im not bouncing off any walls and calling for a linching .

He could have got injured playing in the Four nations, he could get injured in training for Wigan. The RFU will insure him, it will be part of the deal that he plays.

100% Spot on.

If people aren't moaning that the kit is a disgrace, not having our own stadium is a disgrace, our players deciding they want to go elsewhere... is a disgrace, WTF is Ian Lenghan supposed to do? It is impossible to keep everyone happy. And even being in the great position we are now in compared to 5 years ago, a lot in part because of what Leneghan has done since he came here. He his still copping undeserved flack.

If he thought he had it bad before, every nob element of every team will boo him now.

There is a charitable trust associated with the Barbarians club. It main aim is to give money to aid the development of RU around the world but it also makes donations to worthy causes such as disaster relief.

I wonder if the charitable trust will donate some money to help the development of RL because Sam will have played? I won't hold my breath.

all this "he could get injured" is a load of cobblers. he could get injured at home, at asda or wherevert he hell he decides to go when hes not playing or training

hes got an opportunity to show how good RL players are and yes, it may lead to a move to union but thats HIS decision to make in 3 years time

who knows, some of the rah rah fans might watch him on sat and think "you know what, there may be something in this RL lark, maybe we should have a butchers eh chaps"

i cant think of a better advert for our sport than having one of the best players in our code being selected to play an internationala match against the Aussies, live on TV and in front of 80K fans

go on Sam, show them how good RL actually is and make then realise that their form of rugby is dull dull dull

Didn't he say he doesn't watch Union as it's boring? People need to realise golden boy Sam cares more about him self than Wigan.

Well, lets just bend over and do whatever union ask, and promote their fixtures for them, because that's what Sam wants to do.

Who cares how it looks for our sport that we have an incredibly hard time trying to get taken seriously, all that matters is Sam Tomkins and chairmen releasing press statements that make out a RU friendly to be a bigger deal than playing for England in a 4N final.

Of course, I'm sure everybody's opinion would be identical if Saints were announcing tie ups with RU clubs and sending players out to play in RU games with fanfare statements saying what wonderful big stages union friendlies are and how we don't hesitate to allow our players such marvellous experiences.

prolly not

but maybe Sams appearance might raise a bit more cash for the disaster relief funds they help out which i think is slightly more important, dont you?

Which Rugby club as he just recently signed a deal with ?

so f***ing what!

do you care more about yourself than the company work for? im willing to bet my house that you do

The union NZ halfback, his name escapes me is the biggest name in the sport (i think) invite him to play in the Exiles game, just to gauge a response, or Sonny Bill as a one off.

Dan Carter

He could fall off a mountain if he went mountaineering as well and the fact he might be insured against it is irrelevant because the club would not allow him to do it. It will be in his contract he can't do stuff that could result in injury and thus make him unavailable for Wigan. This should have been knocked back for that very reason.

The fact he will be insured is no compensation to the club or the fans if he is unavailable due to injury.

He has no need to play this game and so no need to risk injury. Comparing this to possible injury in the 4 nations is a ridiculous argument.

Yeah we'll ask dan carter to fly half way around the world at probably the same time canterbury are playing.

yep i cant see any problem with that

Sonny Bill then

I'm a student to start with but if a company was paying me £300,000 a year and I was their top earner I would certainly show some commitment and loyalty to the people paying my wages.

See above

but the club have said he can play! ffs, where do you people come from?

Sonny Bill also plays in New Zealand, to represent the All Blacks you must play club rugby in New Zealand.

I thought he played in France, shows what i know about Union, ok get a big available name from the Northern hemisphere.

Joel Tomkins...

His bosses are giving him 100% backing

you have anger issues Gareth, my point was me as a paying fan who contributes to the paying of Sam's wages should expect commitment and loyalty to our team as with out us he wouldn't be on his lucrative contract.