The 50K thing is interesting.

If a club sign a RU player then his salary less 50K to count on the cap would be a better system than just saying he is worth 50K a year.

What I think would happen is that someone would throw a fantastic amount of money at SBW for example just because it would get around the cap.

Got to be strict conditions if this was to be even considered.

This is true but it could be so much stronger if Noble got the selection right.

I think it would be at its strongest if we had

Hansen
Lockers
Tomkins

with Hock off the bench

Instead of

Hock
Bailey
Lockers

with Hansen and Tomkins off the bench (no need for both but he hasn't got the balls to drop one of them)

Both second half tries were from forward passes.

I like Noble's idea. He says that only one ex Union player per club would get the SC concession. That would not affect anything concerning youth development.
Also agree with Jonh that we go below six nations level for players.
After all Boston never played for Wales and Offiah didn't play for England.
A wingman of their calibre would do very nicely thank you.
Before he brings a number of youth players through he needs to bolster the front row by at least one of not two experienced props.
When he's done that lets have a look at Tomkins, Mossop and Farrell.
Given the injury to Phelps it is time he brought Ainscough in.

A salary cap concession just means the union player would get paid more. The players agent would inflate the salary demanded to take account of the fact they know clubs can spend some more money on wages.

Why can't anyone see this would be divisive? It basically says RU players are worth more than established RL players.

It is a ridiculous idea.

Dave

Like you say Dave it would do nothing for team unity in the slightest.

How could you justify having someone just walk into an RL team and get paid far more than players who are better than them.

I know in the past RU has provided some great players to RL, but that was before RU went professional. Any decent RU player would surely want to stay in that code and earn the money that only RU has at the moment.

Noble out?

What would happen if the ball was on the other foot, like if the RU came n radied one player for our SL clubs for example burrow,wello,lockers,r horne,burgess,westerman,j rooney,r myler.

If RL exempt £50k for a union player, RU will exempt £200k for a league lad.

Getting into a bun fight with union would be madness and Noble has further cemented his position as a moron in my mind. The man seems to have completely lost the plot.

The guy is stuck in a time warp.

Is he the new Maurice Bamford...?

I agree

I understand what Noble is saying but if he is talking as if RU was still an amateur game.

A lot of the RU players signed in the past were top players in the other code. Jonathan Davies, Scott Quinell etc. On the other hand some were very much unknown players such as Offiah, Preston, Hampson who did exceptionally well in Rugby League.

Which every way you look at it, signing Union plyers was always a gamble as players could either turn out to be superstars or complete flops. Far better invest in local amateur RL and young RL players.

League cannot compete with Union for money now and if it could, Edwards would have been the Wigan Coach by now.

The same thought struck me. He'll be arguing to get rid of six tackles next (which would suit his tactics perfectly).

IMO the only merit of this idea is to put one over on the other code, and that's one financial battle we can never win.

To hear of him proposing salary cap concessions for experienced RU players instead of our own youngsters is hugely disappointing - for wigan fans in particular, but I think for all supporters of the game.

The man will say anything to keep himself in the media and in the spotlight. How many of his post match interviews are actually filled with anything other than throw away phrases?

He is a survivor and to be fair i think the riddles in which he speaks will ensure he gets him 1 more job after he leaves Wigan.

how long are we prepared to watch his boring rugby tactics before IL wises up and gets rid?

It's difficult to see any drastic decision being made after only 2 matches. However, we're not party to what's going on behind-the-scenes, and if there are problems there that we don't know about, then things might happen sooner rather than later.

If everything is fine backstage, then we can only wait and see how the results go. The more games we lose, then it'll be easier for IL and co to make the big decision.

SLS is on iPlayer now. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_2/ Nobles chat and our highlights start at about 18:15 if you want to skip.

SLS is on iPlayer now. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_2/ Nobles chat and our highlights start at about 18:15 if you want to skip.

I'm no great fan of Noble these days but have to say I think he has a point here. No one is suggesting RL will be making bids for Shane Williams, Brian O'Driscoll or Dan Carter but if the RL World Cup proved anything, it proved that if we have to rely on RL's own home grown talent for the future we will come up short.

RU is a big professional game and they are attracting players from our heartlands as well as there traditional own ones now thus creating a large player base, this means that those decent players who aren't regulars for their countries and unlikely ever to be (the likes of say Tom Voyce, Dan Hipkiss,Ayoola Erinle etc) might be tempted to cross codes for the chance of reasonable pay and an international future helping our depth. Don't forget Offiah, Bentley et al were not big names in RU when they switched

Virtually all of them - Watkins excluded came from within the service area - Diskin came from Dewsbury which I think still counts in the Leeds area

No it didn't. It proved if you have a quota system that doesn't work and populate the teams with almost 45%-50% of overseas players then you will come up short of talent.

There is no evidence suggest that if we manage to reduce the number of overseas players we won't be able to find UK players to fill the slots.

If the number of overseas players in teams is [inot[/i reduced then how would signing RU players help anyway? They would just be taking the place of British RL players which solves nothing.



There is nothing to stop RL clubs going for these players now. The idea there should be some sort of salary cap subsidy so we can discount part of their salaries is stupid. If without such a subsidy it is deemed the salary cap is too small then it needs increasing. But the notion an RU player who has never played the game can get higher wages than an RL player just because the RU player signed from the other sport is ludicrous. You may as well tell all the young RL players to go and play union first then they can come back on a higher wage.

Dave

I cringed with embarresment watching that noble segment of the SL show.

The only people who should be exempt from the salary cap are players who have come through the academy system, in my opinion there must also be a sliding scale of % exemption also.

eg

15 first team appeareances 100 % exemption
10 first team appearances 75 % exemption and so on.

That way the teams who play the kids get full benefit whilst those who claim to have a squad full of kids yet never give them an opportunity get less of a benefit.

I think that Noble is making these statements at this time to draw attention away from the bad start we've had this season ... if he's been advocating it since 2006 why is it suddenly 'news' now ?

Brian Noble actually names Brian O'Driscoll as one of the targets - along with Jonny Wilkinson.

This has to be the daftest thing Noble has come out with.
If nothing else can those people who think it is a good idea please explain to me what they would expect the rah rah boys to do in return?
Nothing?

Please don't be so stupid.

If this were to happen you might as well start packing the bags of any of our "star" names. Union would (as someone has said) simply tell their clubs they can spend "x" on RL players and when it comes to money they are like the banks - no one knows where its coming from but there seems to be more and more of it.


There was an article in the FT (nothing else to read at work, don't panic) stating that THIS season the premiership RU clubs between them will lose 20 MILLION and all that was being said was that they couldn't keep expecting their rich benefactors to keep stumping up the shortfall.

Noble I believe is just deflecting away from the fact that he is a one trick pony who has been found out.
Unless we have a great cup run which would sweep him along I very much doubt that he will be our coach through to the end of this year.

He has.
He mentioned it at the fans forum to a few people ( I happened to be in earshot).

So it has obviously not been done to detract from our poor start.