: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:25 pm  

Rumour on the other forum that Northampton are looking at Sam Tomkins.

Disaster if this kid leaves and what a waste it would be. Although I could hardly blame him as its a short career and he isn't get any opportunities at Wigan.

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:52 pm  

Cadoo! wrote:

Rumour on the other forum that Northampton are looking at Sam Tomkins.

Disaster if this kid leaves and what a waste it would be. Although I could hardly blame him as its a short career and he isn't get any opportunities at Wigan.

I think this is the danger now, as two or three young English Wasps RFU players have been enticed over to play their club rugby in France, The RFU will look to fund more RFL players to fill the void.
I listened to an interview mid week on 5 live and basically it was said that the lack of restricted spending in France would draw more players over and one of the ways to fill the gaps was with League players.

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:56 pm  

There is something seriously wrong at our club if we are letting talent like that go.

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:59 pm  

odemwingie wrote:

There is something seriously wrong at our club if we are letting talent like that go.

Its called salary cap..RU will always be able to out spend us..we can try as hard as we want to keep them.. but if the players want the money they will go..you cant blame the clubs

Its the RFL your anger should be directed at..there the ones who are happy for this sort of thing to happen we could lose all our talent but the RFL will just act like it didnt happen..and carry on telling everyone the sc is working..

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:25 pm  

wigan_knight wrote:

Its called salary cap..RU will always be able to out spend us..we can try as hard as we want to keep them.. but if the players want the money they will go..you cant blame the clubs

Its the RFL your anger should be directed at..there the ones who are happy for this sort of thing to happen we could lose all our talent but the RFL will just act like it didnt happen..and carry on telling everyone the sc is working..

Even with a salary cap, we should be keeping players like Tomkins.

We should have a seperate cap for young players, to make sure clubs can keep them.

Also have another cap for overseas players to make sure we dont have too many.

Have another one for British players.

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:07 pm  

We should just face the fact that Rugby Union can take any one of our players any time it wants.

Some lads will be tapped and won't go, but the next time an Ellery Hanley or Shaun Edwards emerges, they'll throw money at him that our capped clubs won't hope to match.

If Sam Tomkins gets picked for Wigan for the rest of this season, and becomes the superstar we all hope for, he's even more likely to finish up in Union.

Gatland has already said this about any Welsh players who emerge from Celtic. So what chance us with the English clubs' spending power?

It's a fact of modern rugby that we're just going to have to deal with. But if they're Wigan lads, Wigan will still be blamed - mainly by the pro-cappers. Look at the mythologising surrounding Chris Ashton. Many of those who hate us now include him on the list of names of those 'we let go'.

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:10 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

We should just face the fact that Rugby Union can take any one of our players any time it wants.

Some lads will be tapped and won't go, but the next time an Ellery Hanley or Shaun Edwards emerges, they'll throw money at him that our capped clubs won't hope to match.

If Sam Tomkins gets picked for Wigan for the rest of this season, and becomes the superstar we all hope for, he's even more likely to finish up in Union.

Gatland has already said this about any Welsh players who emerge from Celtic. So what chance us with the English clubs' spending power?

It's a fact of modern rugby that we're just going to have to deal with. But if they're Wigan lads, Wigan will still be blamed - mainly by the pro-cappers. Look at the mythologising surrounding Chris Ashton. Many of those who hate us now include him on the list of names of those 'we let go'.

What do you propose we do then?

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:17 pm  

odemwingie wrote:

What do you propose we do then?

Die with dignity.

Sorry - I'm not being facetious here, but if I could answer that question, I'd forward it, along with my CV and my wage demands, to the RFL and I'd expect to be in the top job there the following morning.

This is a much bigger problem than many people seem to realise. We'll keep trundling along in our little way, valueing our working class credibility and churning out young talent, which we'll then try to convince that playing for love of club and/or country is superior to playing for big wages. They'll all nod and agree, and then the Union scouts will take the cream of that crop and their families to dinner at the most expensive restaurants in Cheshire and show them a glimpse of a different world.

At Wigan, we now pay our youngsters good money compared to what they were getting a couple of years ago - one reason why we aren't able to splash the Barrett cash on any massive names. But it's still nothing compared to the silly money that Union can muster.

Chris Ashton was offered £160,000 - at what, 18!!! And that's from an English club. The next time we produce a Hanley or Lydon, you can expect the French clubs to weigh in, and we won't even get a sniff.

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:35 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

Die with dignity.

Sorry - I'm not being facetious here, but if I could answer that question, I'd forward it, along with my CV and my wage demands, to the RFL and I'd expect to be in the top job there the following morning.

This is a much bigger problem than many people seem to realise. We'll keep trundling along in our little way, valueing our working class credibility and churning out young talent, which we'll then try to convince that playing for love of club and/or country is superior to playing for big wages. They'll all nod and agree, and then the Union scouts will take the cream of that crop and their families to dinner at the most expensive restaurants in Cheshire and show them a glimpse of a different world.

At Wigan, we now pay our youngsters good money compared to what they were getting a couple of years ago - one reason why we aren't able to splash the Barrett cash on any massive names. But it's still nothing compared to the silly money that Union can muster.

Chris Ashton was offered £160,000 - at what, 18!!! And that's from an English club. The next time we produce a Hanley or Lydon, you can expect the French clubs to weigh in, and we won't even get a sniff.

But are we in a position to just increase the cap so we can keep our players? No, so we cannot do anything about that, we just need to hope that a large number will stay in rugby league.

I think my suggestion on the last page is not a bad one to be honest.

: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:46 pm  

odemwingie wrote:

But are we in a position to just increase the cap so we can keep our players? No, so we cannot do anything about that, we just need to hope that a large number will stay in rugby league.

I think my suggestion on the last page is not a bad one to be honest.

We could moderate the cap. Instead of putting forward ideas about recruiting from Union, we could suggest discounting Academy players from the salary cap for the duration of the time they spend at their club.

That would encourage us to develop more kids ourselves, and give us some flexibility with regard to the youngsters who are currently being taken for expensive dinners in Cheshire (and that applies to several of Wigan's current bunch).

I don't want to get into another salary cap debate though. It's more depressing than Wigan's present form.