I very much doubt he is on that much a season. I'm sure Eastmond is on less than half that. One attraction about Union is that even if your initial contract isn't that much (in Union terms) you have the potential to earn a lot more with future contracts. Of course all that depends on how you adapt to the game. The time has come to accept that we are down the food chain regarding finances compared to Union. League players are seen as cheap gambles by Union clubs, everyone’s looking for the next Jason Robinson. This in part is due to the salary cap that is imposed on the Premiership teams. A lot of Premiership clubs just can't compete with the money rich French teams so they have to start looking outside of the game for next best thing. I expect the raid on league talent to continue for the near future, not that we can complain, we did our fair share of raiding Union in the past.

Losing Eastmond, Tomkins and it seems Sam Tomkins is a tragedy for the game.

It sends a message that any young League player with a bit of talent can only aim towards union. We will become a feeder code.

The international pool of players available to our code is tiny, there are 3 who will walk away and leave us so much weaker. Until we get a credible International comp then our code will always struggle.

I am all for the salary cap, but I think clubs should be allowed to protect home grown products and exceptions made for Academy products, as long as a club can prove they are able to support this without getting into financial dificulty.

It's a big shame to see him go. It's also a reflection of the low skill levels in areas of the dark side's game, i.e. defence. You have to accpet that Joel Tompkins has simply taken a better job offer. If you were in your 20's and were offered double the money for doing the same job, what would you do? Loyalty dissapeared a long time ago. We raided the Union ranks heavily in the past and can have no gripe of them doing the same to us. The answer has always been the same, support the amateur game and develop our own junior talent through the academy system.
For all those Whinos who started the booing of Sam Tompkins after the Maguire incident, if/ when he goes, you and other booers are quite simply "MORONS".

I could live with only 50% of the club trained players salaries counting towards the cap, but if the figures being bandied around are any where near correct I don't think this would prevent players from switching codes.

The levels that RU clubs are able to pay would mean that RL would effectively have to scrap the salary cap.
That shouldn't happen, so unfortunately Wigan will have to work round it as best they can.
RL becoming a feeder code to RU is IMO scare tactics by wigan/wigan fans who wish for there club to be treat differently, or for them to manouver (at least) the salary cap higher, this would turn other clubs into feeder clubs for the larger clubs (such as wigan), even more so than now, and that is why it shouldn't be allowed as it isn't in the best interest of SL or RL in general.
Unfortunately when you have two strains of a similar game, the highest paid will attract the better or greedier players, wether that ultimately does that game any long term good is open to debate.
Being a fan of a smaller club unable to keep its best players, and i'm sure other clubs are in a similar and worse situation, i have little sympathy for wigan.
Its market forces and the real world, unfortunately it will lessen our chances of national team strength, but that nothing in comparison to the damage the rfl have done at that level, so they ought not to cry wolf either.

Hardly a tragedy - there are other bright young things already emerging to fill the boots of those players switching codes and there always will be; this is only a tragedy in Wigan and if the Wigan club felt the same way, they'd pay Tomkins more than their Union counterparts were offering and that would solve the problem.

In reality, very few RL players are lost to Union - certainly fewer than were lost from Union to League when the boot was on the other foot.

Don't blame him, i'd do the same

Hardly think Joel is the loss of the century, at second row we have others of a similar or better standard and the fact he plays at centre says more about RL in this country than about how good he is. Sam is a different matter i'll grant you that but if he's so great pay him more and others less. Market forces as others have said.
Eastmond had one good season and didn't kick on this year so as it stands we'll never know how good he could of been unlike Sam

Fact is, Joel Tomkins is not worth 400k. The salary cap in the Aviva Premiership is so much higher they can afford to spend so much. That does not mean we should raise our cap.

If he's getting that i'll eat my own cock

fruity!!!

Show off!!

Announcing Shaun Wane as head coach, wigan said Joel and sam are happy at Wigan..

Can I just clarify - is that whilst it's still connected, or are you removing it first?

If you knew me you'd instinctively know the answer to that question

The latest one doing the rounds is lomax.......still there are plenty more.......etc etc etc.

The NRL has raised its cap to fend off the Union, Super League and now AFL threat, they acknowledge they cannot continue to lose top players to other football codes and they have masses more junior talent than us.

All I want to see are clubs be rewarded and able to protect and encouraged to protect there own Academy products, be that from rival SL clubs or other codes. Wakefield have seen over the years and recently Academy products break into the first team and then be shipped away once they show promise.

There really is little incentive to invest in bringing through quality juniors if they are just going to be lifted from clubs at will once they show any promise. I personally think it is essential that changes are made so that a club can offset some of an Academy produced players wage against the cap.

Conversely I would like to see overseas players count extra on the cap.

In relation to Joel I agree he has not had his best season, but he has been playing in a new position forced on to him by the unplanned departure of Gleeson. Centre is a massive problem position for British rugby league with very very few quality ones either playing at the top level or more worryingly coming through.

Prior to the cap we have not seen anything like a quality International Team stepping out for GB. Some of the sides have been an embarrassment and the attendances to International games have fallen off massively. A trip to Wembley used to be the highlight of most fans year to watch a test vs Australia, they used to near pack the place out, the attendance on November 5th will be a joke.

We have to find some even ground, a balance between paying our players what they are worth and ensuring they remain in the game. We will never be able to keep them all, we cannot afford it but sitting there and doing nothing but claiming "oh well another will step up" is like burying your head in the sand.

I am very much an Internationalist to have any chance of growing our code needs a credible International Competition, which the 3 (not 4) Nations can be, but not while we continue to lose our best young talent to Union.

A very small percentage of RL players move RU, they may be assumed to be the better players, but in the vast majority of cases clubs are rewarded by bringing players through.
I have never heard the concerns of Wigan fans when our players are taken away by other clubs, so please spare us the crocodile tears, its only because its Wigan that it is of any concern to you.
If the game was strong enough to stand a larger salary cap fair enough, id agree, but unfortunately it is nowhere near that or likely to be in the near future.
IMO the salary cap is a good thing, but ultimately unless the RFL make a decent effort of strengthening our game (and the clubs of course) it will be an achilles heel also.
Many remember the "look after the top club" rules regarding star players and approaches from RU a number of years ago, if that had been done fairly maybe others would be more receptive, but it wasn't.
who benefited from that????
It's not a bottomless pit, if Wigan value their players they will recompense them suitably and the players will stay, if not the club (if the player is under contract) will be recompensed and either bring through another talented young player, or buy one from somebody like us!

or reopen super bowl? double edged knife and greedy little mercenaries will always push the boundary of the cap etc to either bully a better deal from league or onion

Incorrect. I have been called for changes every time we lose players especially your British players to the other code, it has nothing to do with club loyalty. Raynor, Pryce, Walker, Eastmond, Ashton and now potentially Tomkins x 2 and Lomax, not to mention the Academy players all over the clubs that are being targeted and recruited by Union such as George Ford, Owen Farrell, Ian Thornely etc.

Also I have been and will always be gutted to see Trinity lose there youngsters to other clubs, not least because I spent 2 years putting my time into bringing much of the current crop and those who have gone before and moved on developing them.

So basically read what is there not what you think is there in relation to "club" loyalties, which when it comes to issues like this I have non.

One player every year or so, doesnt make it an issue, its only an issue to the supporters of that club, and if the clubs valued them as highly as the supporters they would find a way (which in the past they did) to keep them.
RL in wales openly targeted young players playing RU to try and develop some youth talent and in the past RL has benefited largely from a derth of RU talent.
You are bleating on because its Wigan, ok you may well have banged the drum for others, but i (should i bother to look) would find it difficult to find as many posts on ours and other smaller clubs sites, about how bigger clubs RL or otherwise have nicked players from us.
Its what we have to live with on a much larger scale year in year out, so forgive me if i dont particularly care about wigan (or whoever) losing a player every now and then to RU.

If the intention of the RFL is to produce a stronger International setup then I would think that the way forward has to be in helping clubs retain the players they have produced.

The way to do this whilst still retaining the cap has to be to reduce the cost on the salary cap of home-grown players and to increase the cost of overseas players.

Perhaps the way forward should be along the lines of:

Academy product - 75% of wages count on cap
Other clubs academy product - 100% of wages count
Overseas player - 125% of wages count against cap

It encourages the production of your own players, doesn't punish clubs from signing players who have developed at other SL clubs but can't break into their respective teams, and discourages clubs bringing in "average" overseas players.



Personally speaking, any International team that feels the need to allow "Johnny Foreigners" to play for them (no matter what the rules say) don't deserve my support anyway and my support will always be for Trinity before any International team.

Its not Wigan that are losing the players it is the International Team. I am far more an internationalist than a club supporter.

Take the potential losses I highlighted Tomkins x 2 Lomax and Eastmond they could have been and some are already proven international players for years to come. It appears now we will get to see them for in some cases only 1 more year prior to jumping ship.

No matter how you try to justify it our game cannot support the losses of good young players. I would rather Tomkins join Saints than RFU as he would still be in our code.

As for the dearth of Union talent coming to league fantastic, as for us taking advantage of the strength of union in trying to generate players for league fantastic.

I am a league supporter and am happy for us to do this wish we were still able to attract the top Union players we once could. Sadly now though the boot is on the other foot being a league supporter I find it very hard to take, just as I used to enjoy it when we were able to take the best union had to offer as it was a shot in the arm for our game, and harmful to the union code.

Jonh - we may have disagreed several times in the past - but on this one I get you completely and utterly agree with you!

Now pick yourself up off the floor!

The RFL and the clubs themselves are causing far more damage to what is left of our international game, than a couple of players here and there going to RU.
While ever the RFL dilute the GB team we will never win another major tournament, add onto that the expansion dream further diluting the international game, in order to strengthen wales and france, and failure to toughen up the import regulations to stop "fake passport", "failed clubs" overseas players excemption, and just average journeyman players coming into our game and short sighted clubs using all these players.
RL doesnt need saving from RU it needs saving from itself.
Hypocritical final point IMO, you cant rejoice in one and the blub like a baby about the other.