Re: Good Joel Tomkins article : Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:21 am  

jaws1 wrote:

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Blame Wigan for that when we played and won the Twickenham sevens after being behind in the final and the yawnion men were in fine voice of Sweet Chariot .We sent a very strong side there and it made the Union bosses sit up and compare how fit we were to Union shortly after they appointed Phil Larder a lot more followed after that Sean Edwards ,Ellery Hanley ,Joe Lydon ,Billy Maginty ,Dennis Betts to name a few Faz is in the England RU coaching as now .

Blame Wigan? For having a good team? Should you not be blameing the RFL and every other RL club for not employing them. ...There is no way Wigan could have employed them all.

WINNERS, and they were allowed to escape because then as now the bulk has RL is happy to see itself as a victim, rather than producing winning players, for a winning sport, that should be winning all this silly money that goes to RU in this country.

Re: Good Joel Tomkins article : Mon Jan 14, 2013 1:43 pm  

Wigan Peer wrote:

Blame Wigan? For having a good team? Should you not be blameing the RFL and every other RL club for not employing them. ...There is no way Wigan could have employed them all.

WINNERS, and they were allowed to escape because then as now the bulk has RL is happy to see itself as a victim, rather than producing winning players, for a winning sport, that should be winning all this silly money that goes to RU in this country.

Very true, Shaun Edwards applied for jobs with Warrington and London Broncos and neither were interested in him.

Re: Good Joel Tomkins article : Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:58 pm  

Wigan Peer wrote:

Blame Wigan? For having a good team? Should you not be blameing the RFL and every other RL club for not employing them. ...There is no way Wigan could have employed them all.

WINNERS, and they were allowed to escape because then as now the bulk has RL is happy to see itself as a victim, rather than producing winning players, for a winning sport, that should be winning all this silly money that goes to RU in this country.

Blame Wigan loosley it was a wake up call to the RU to see that RL players were far fitter and more skillfull yes you can blame the RL for not employing them as coaches .Phil Larder was the Great Britain coach who the RL sacked and RU snapped him up as to the RL clubs themselves all they could see was Aussie coaches coming over here and was not bothered anout home bred coaches.

Re: Good Joel Tomkins article : Tue Jan 15, 2013 8:47 am  

jaws1 wrote:

Blame Wigan loosley it was a wake up call to the RU to see that RL players were far fitter and more skillfull yes you can blame the RL for not employing them as coaches .Phil Larder was the Great Britain coach who the RL sacked and RU snapped him up as to the RL clubs themselves all they could see was Aussie coaches coming over here and was not bothered anout home bred coaches.

"Blame Wigan loosely"!!!??? For producing winners, give your head a shake.

Re: Good Joel Tomkins article : Tue Jan 15, 2013 11:48 am  

I remember when Wigan made their first forays into playing cross-code matches. The main desire was to prove to RU people that we had the better athletes, better tactics etc. I still remember with disbelief how an RU guy I worked with made a £50 bet with someone that Bath would beat Wigan in BOTH of those cross-code matches. Astonishing. They really were living in La La Land and we so wanted to prove this to them.

But it's no wonder they sat up and took notice of us afterwards - Wigan in particular (much the way the Aussies initially only took Wigan seriously out of all the British clubs, because of our WCC victories - we lost Clarkey, Platt and Betts as a direct result).

But once RU fully entered the realms of professionalism, it was only a matter of time before they started looking to recruit our stars regardless of any cross-code matches. The agents began marketing our best lads to them straight away. In addition, you had Clive Woodward, who was then the England RU boss, always attending our games and bigging us up.

To say that Wigan are to blame for the current situation is a very simplistic interpretation of what actually happened, but it's not atypical of certain type of RL thinking - in other words, it would have been preferable if we'd not been very good and had therefore passed without notice. Well, not in my book.