Oi. You leave Roy out of this.

I had to throw it in there

i see where your coming from, but dont agree.

if the RU want him, they should buy him "cold" ..ie..not had a trial (like Joel, etc).
its up to the club to get the best price, and if he fails at Union, he'll be an expensive mistake.
letting him play in this game gives the RU an insight into his ability.

Quote ="MattyB"Not just Wigan RLFC, the RFL are also delighted with this: www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... 626&type=1 '" Matty I am glad that someone as at last picked up on what I have said a few times today,it is very clear to me that the RL have been involved in the negotiations from the begining. They and Wigan have been hand in hand all through this,Wigan announce Sams involvement,the RL give it their full backing within half an hour.

Quote ="MattyB"Not just Wigan RLFC, the RFL are also delighted with this: www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... 626&type=1 '" Matty I am glad that someone as at last picked up on what I have said a few times today,it is very clear to me that the RL have been involved in the negotiations from the begining. They and Wigan have been hand in hand all through this,Wigan announce Sams involvement,the RL give it their full backing within half an hour.

Compare the RFL and Wigan's reponse to the NRL when Benji was offered $1m to play Union in Japan during off-season couple years ago

Quote ="St pete"Do the be more to this than meets the eye? With Wigan teaming up with saracans etc?'" www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... &type=news thats some of what lenagan has said about this link up with sarries. who knows whats gonna happen!

Quote ="St pete"Do the be more to this than meets the eye? With Wigan teaming up with saracans etc?'" www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... &type=news thats some of what lenagan has said about this link up with sarries. who knows whats gonna happen!

I disagree. I can't see anything in what Wood's said that isn't the truth. Our sport produces world class sporting professionals and he's right to sing our praises.

Spot on.

I don't often agree with you, but you're right.

I think it's even worse than just moving closer to losing our best player, it's patronising, its RU condescending to RL, it's turning RL into a quaint novelty of a sport - oooh look, one of those uncouth northerners is being inducted into the hallowed ranks of the baaa-baaas.... one day the oik might be permitted to play for a rugger club.

Disgusting.

This is bad for RL and an embarrassment for Wigan, the proudest club in RL should hang its head in shame.

Disgusting.

IL and all the other RL club owners and the RFL should be embarrassed at the pathetic spectacle they have allowed RU to make of our sport.

Disgusting.

Not sure why people care that much tbh. It's a one off game and he's with us for the next 3 years which is probably 1 or 2 years longer than most had expected.

It's not like he's going to get injured either. He'll basically be a spectator just standing on the end of the pitch instead of on the terraces.

Really not fussed about this. In fact would be interesting to watch. Hope he goes well - imagine how embarrassing it would be for the RU diehard fans to have someone who's never played the game giving them a rugby lesson.

I hope he's sucessful, vindication for the 100+ years of bigotry from the RFU, mind you it should have happened when we played Barth at Twickenham. I still think to myself if only we played the game with League tactics, chips over the top, kicks to the corner for Offiah, we would have had a much closer result.

But then Bath could have stifled the game with mauls and rucks but instead, to their credit, they played an open game.

How many touches of the ball do we think he's likely to get?

Fair enough, but i hope we scared the hell out of the RFU

I'm miffed about this, it's like your bird catching you cheating and saying you want to stay with her and won't do it again then the week after go to Bangkok for a week.

In one way I'm happy for Sam to get the recognition but then again it's a sneaky way of snatching him from under our noses, if he wants to go then we shouldn't stand in his way, after all he might hate RU. If he likes it then we should sell him for a £1,000,000 and put that towards buying the DW in a few years time.

Just put sky sports news on to see Sam running through the Bradford team at home earlier this season.

Not often Rugby League clubs get coverage like that outside of the season. Interviews with the Aus RU captain and coach talking about him, along with clips of him training with England RL. In a normal week after the season has finished, there would be NO Rugby League coverage at all.

Fab.

Perhaps we can send all our best young players over to play union games, then we can pat ourselves on the back about how much coverage we got for a couple of days whilst reminiscing about the time when we used to be a proud sport that wouldn't stand for this patronising bollox and had some good young players that we tried to keep in RL rather than rolling a red carpet to Twickers to allow them to have glorified trials?

It's not Rugby League coverage though. It's Rugby Union coverage.

Beautifully put.

It is RU coverage.

The message RU are getting across here is: look, the best player from that small northern game aspires to play on the big stage and be part of our fabulous rugger tradition....

It makes me sick.

First post, so please go easy!

This is how I see it: If we make the assumption (as I do) that Sam is a man of his word and will see out a minimum of 3 years at Wigan, then we potentially have a player to build the Wigan brand around for the next three years.

Looking at it purely from a business perspective, surely people can see how we can begin to exploit the potential commercial opportunities of having one of the most exciting , talked about players in world rugby (league or union) in our team.

People like Robinson and Ashton have benefitted hugely from the union propaganda machine in the past – like it or not RU know how to get the media and fans talking about players. I think IFL is being very clever here by trying to piggy back this and use it to our advantage by getting Sam the profile he deserves, whilst being committed to Wigan for the next three years.

If we are to grow the Wigan brand and build up a fan base that is nationwide, and perhaps worldwide then we have to somehow get the interest of the casual sports fan.

How many people all over the world are now Man Utd fans because as kids they watched David Beckham play for them?

How many union fans just need a reason to start taking an interest in following a league team? Surely having one of the world’s most exciting players at the club gives them a reason to watch.

I really don’t see a downside – Sam gets to raise his profile and potentially Wigan get a huge transfer fee in 3 years if he decides to go. Wigan and consequently RL get to use the RU media machine to our advantage – we can’t just moan that RL players get zero coverage and then continue moaning when we get a chance to start changing things.

Agree with all on the coverage front - we're prostituting one of our most talented players. I'd feel as aggrieved if it was Roby, or Hall etc...

We are getting crumbs from the table in terms of coverage. It won't result in ANY benefit for Wigan or RFL - in fact it will probably result in more approaches.

I can understand on a personal level why Sam wants to do it, and I hope he goes really well (and doesn't get injured!)

I'm extremely uncomfortable though with the whole Sam saga.

I work in a role where I ensure that people's T&C reflect the contribution they make, and people understand why someone gets paid more or less than them, but what's important is a sense of fairness in the differential. Am not sure we have that if the rumours on pay are true. ATEOTD how many other players would we be prepared to sacrifice to keep Sam? We know from experience that one player does not make a team.

And the message the RL and us supporters need to be getting across, is this: www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... rians.html i.e. Union has no up and coming talent, one of its poorest national sides ever with poor discipline, and that League is the code to watch... I agree it feels slightly uncomfortable and if it starts to affect his performances next year, i'll undoubtedly be saying let's show him the door, but until then let's assume it won't. You never know he might actually hate his first experience of the game...

And the message the RL and us supporters need to be getting across, is this: www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... rians.html i.e. Union has no up and coming talent, one of its poorest national sides ever with poor discipline, and that League is the code to watch... I agree it feels slightly uncomfortable and if it starts to affect his performances next year, i'll undoubtedly be saying let's show him the door, but until then let's assume it won't. You never know he might actually hate his first experience of the game...

Kin ell

I agree with Deano!



This at the end of the day is just getting League fans to watch union.

Great.

Interview with Wish FM. Fair comments IMO www.wishfm.net/news/local/listen ... erview-32/

Interview with Wish FM. Fair comments IMO www.wishfm.net/news/local/listen ... erview-32/