He will more than likely be earning that kind of money at Wigan in 2-3 years time anyway and has the [ipotential[/i to retire a club legend in the distant future.

Would be foolish to go to rah rah

Load of sh*t. They may have offered but he wont go.

Would we not require a fee because his contract runs till 2010?

We need to keep him at all costs. Get rid of Cameron Phelps & Tim Smith just don't let that lad go.

It's a load of rubbish the Northampton rumour. But I do know 2 super league sides are intrested in him.

If thats true id tell them where to go even if they offered a couple of hundred K!!!

They might be able to tempt sam but as we hold his contract we should take a zero tolerance policy on any union approaches and tell them to F off at all costs!!

I can imagine most super league sides would be interested in him.

I really, really hope there is nothing to this.

If we can't pay enought to keep players like Tomkins in RL at least for the initial part of their career - I accept in the long run the lure of RU cash and international prospects to a star player will be very difficult to counter but we should be able to pay real prospects a decent wage to make the RU switch too much of a risk for them to take at a young age and ensure that we can at least watch our star backs for the first few years of their "rugby" careers - then there is no point in professional RL anymore and we all might as well give up watching it. The declining standards in SL are bad enough without our young talent getting snapped up by RU.

Exactly it would be different from the situation with Chris Ashton as he is still contracted at Wigan & so would require a fee.

I would extend his contract beyond 2010 this season and offer his current wages + whatever Cameron Phelps is on.

We can't let any of our promising young stars contracts run out till the last year we need to have them contracted constantly and extend there contract while they're still under contract. This should then help stop Union poaching our youngsters, they may still sign but it will be our choice not theirs.

One's made an offer to take him on loan.

cough cough... chris ashton (wasn't he offered 140k??)

EXACTLY......the RFL dont know what they're doing....some other idiot from the RFL was champagning the idea of the communist cap tonight on GMR and how great the game now is as 9 Teams are now spending full cap!! ERR... reality check mate....if 9 teams where spending 3m or so then maybe....but all we have done is hold back or top teams and stagnated the game to wakefield and castlefords level were you can still afford to spend full cap even only pulling gates of 6k!!!

The danger is that the 'saviour' as it is talked about (CC) of rugby league IMO is what dangers RL existance and progression the most at the moment, when you have an RU cap of 4 mil and silly money in french RU which means that we'll end up in the same position we're in now media wise, yet we'll probably not even have the better product as an arrow in our bow in 5-10 years because as you say all the decent young tallent wil have buggered off and we'll be left with second rate no marks playing our game (just look at the current England side for a perfect example....our weakest international team in 40 years IMO)

Why is everyone shocked

It was aonly a matter of time before the money men came knocking..I have not been getting to excited about seeing him play for wigan.Because i believe he wont be here to much longer..the money is just to good in RU i'm afraid

I hope there is nothing in this for the sake of the game. I would like to see sam take on kyle eastmond and wheeler from saints for the next decade. That said, there are very few people on here who would turn down £120k at any age, esp. when you're not getting regular first team action. Times are tough and there arn't many superleague teams who wouldn't have a 23/4 year old sam tompkins back when he is £360k richer. And as for paying a fee for him, whats that against union money?

Even more worrying is the fact that the decent players won't even consider RL in the first place.

Some of us have been saying for years that the CC will destroy our game, take away the talent that is there, and deter new talent from taking up the game.

We have been met with a tirade of abuse, accusing us of overreaction and scare mongering.

Yet, as predicted:

The GB international side is a joke
The standard of RL in SL is a joke
Any half decent back is "circled" by RU

Still, maybe this is scare mongering again eh? Let's all stick our heads in the sand and praise the CC. At least the league is "fair" eh?

We can all stand on the same level of the deck, as we watch the ship sink slowly into the sea.

I agree with what you say, but your acting like the world is going to end. Once we have a way to keep all our best youngsters then get some quality from overseas in our league rather than average overpaid idiots, the rest will follow.

best post on here for ages......I wish our game wasnt governed by goons i really do.....'red hall' has held us back for years with half of their imbicilic ideas. I really think if our game was administered by people with the same nouse as their union counterparts our game would be as bigger than union now!!

Whats that old adage?!!

League a game for professionals, run by amateurs

Union a game for amateurs, run by professionals

never a truer word said.....i wish those idiots had some foresight about them....IMO the CC has the potential to set league back to where it was in the 70s, and will do if it is allowed to continue.

We're already seing the start with the declining standards of super league....anyone who argues SL is better than it was 5 years ago is either lieing, deluded, and brainwashed (or eddie and stevo...in which case all of the above!!!

)

Fact is, if cas, wakey etc cant afford to spend what wigan/ leeds / saints can GET THE F@@K out of SL or merge!!!!! That was the vision when SL was created....not to dumb the game down to the lowest common denominator and kill the game from the inside out.

If we are to lose out with Sam Tompkins he will just be the tip of the iceburg!!

Heres just hoping hes as much wigan as some of us.....IMO in sam's shoes, had i been good enough to secure my dream of playing for my hometown and the biggest name in world rugby, the crown jewels wouldnt tempt me to turn my back on my town and play that second rate, boring fatties game!!!!

Said this all along

Exactly......its teams like cas, wakey, salford, london etc. that mean we struggle to hold on to talent like Sam Tompkins......and the RFL assist them in doing it through their lack of adventure and foresight.....i mean the JJB again for our biggest international offering epitimises the shortsightedness and lack of ambition by everyone administrating RL!!

I'm with you mate

If some clubs cant live with the big boys then go to the level they can.. The RFL have tried to make it a level playing field..they have..but instead of making the smaller clubs reach the level of a saints or leeds..they have dragged the rest down to the level of the weakest.

This needs to change..If you cant pay the Wages to challenge..its not the rests fault

If there is any truth in this then.

Northampton BOG OFF!!!!

Maybe instead of Noble spouting rubbish about the RFL granting special dispensation to superleague clubs to go out and spend big money on Union players he should be asking them to grant us some sort of way of keeping our own youngsters!!!

He talked about signing a big name Union player on a big deal yet with only say 50k counting towards the cap. He'd be better off touting the idea around where any youngster that comes through your system can only cost a maximum of 'x' amount of pounds on your salry cap with the rest being waived.

Lets just hope sam sees the bigger picture and doesnt buy the union dollar......If i were him i know what id choose........

leading my home town to wembley in front of 30k passionate wigan fans...or being paid 10 times more to play a stagnant game, in front of stagnant prawn sandwich fans, having team mates call timothy, and going for a pims and lemonade after the game!!! No contest really....WIGAN RLFC SAM!!!! Get what you deserve and become the next wigan rl legend!

I hope he shares your vision as well mate.

Ian Lenagan said at the last FF that the accelerate squad, of which Sam T is one, were all now signed on 3 years deals.
Also each year they would be offered a new updated 3 year deal.
This is IL trying to ring fence our best youngsters so that Union won't be able to just step in and take them.
When Ashton left it was because his contract was due to expire within a short period.
It looks as though IL will keep the players he wants by long contract and same as soccer not let his best players have anywhere near just one year left on their deal.
It will also prevent the numpties running Super Dooper League from re-imposing the quite insane 20/20(25) rule again.
Agree the cap is now crippling the game.
Standards are now so low it's terrible.
Leeds played Manley last Sunday and their 6,7 & 13 were McGuire, Burrow & Sinfield.
When Wigan played Manley our 6,7 & 13 was Shaun Edwards, Andy Gregory & Ellery Hanley.
That's the state of the decline. Can anyone anywhere seriously believe that Sinfield is better than Ellery Hanley?
That's of course apart from the chaimen of Super Dooper League clubs one of which is our great and noble leader IL who thinks the salary cap and the decline is in fact an improvement and therefore one must deduce he thinks Sinfield really is better than Hanley!
Actually I don't imagine he does. How though can you watch the constant year on year decline and think the salary cap is a success?

Before you pies get all in a unnecessary tiz, it would be wise to check if Northampton actually need an untried RL player to play at fly half or scrum half.

A quick check shows they have Stephen Myler doing pretty damn well at fly half

Oh and as for scrum half they have a player called Ben Foden who is already in the full England squad.

Would seem a waste to therefore throw big bucks at a young league player