how long has he got on his contract?

Be great to see him signed up for a good few years in league before he goes to the dark side

He signed a 5 year contract this year. So did Joel.

Even a 10 year contract would mean love all, i'm sure Rah Rah have the finances to buy out a contract.



Hope to god he doesn't get booed playing for England and he does stay in League though.

It's a sad state of affairs when I'd actually be made up if somebody said we could have a couple more seasons out of him and then he will leave for the NRL.



I just hope Wigan and the RFL can sit down and come up with something. They were prepared to offer Cunningham extra money and he never even bothered to turn out for GB and they gave Rads extra money and as good as he was Sam could be even better.

Yep, me too.







The whole salary cap needs re-thinking. Clubs should not be afraid to bring talent through instead of worrying about Union or the leagues bigger clubs stealing them.



IMO - any player that comes through your academy should have 50% of his wage exempt from the cap.



Teams should have a minimum of 8 players from their academy in the 25 man squad and 3 in their 17.



A transfer fee should be paid for ALL British players under the age of 24 regardless of whether they are under contract or not (therefore, effectively, the club that brought him through hold his registration until he is 24)



The cap should be split into British and overseas with the majority being on British talent. (say £1m and £600k)

I'd have similar. I'm not sure clubs could afford to have every player they bring through counting only 50% to their cap.



I'd want 2 things put in place around the cap-



1. When a player that has come through your system becomes a full international only 50% of their wage counts on the cap. I would have a limit of 5 players for each club as again having everybody may not be affordable and it would also give the RFL Rhinos.....err Leeds sorry an unfair advantage. This would encourage more clubs to produce top players and strengthen the game at the top end.



2. I'd bring in a minimum salary cap spend. If clubs in the lower half don't want it raised fair enough but if they want a franchise in superleague they must be able to spend up to a certain limit of what's the point. I'd have the minimum at 1.4m and the maximum still at 1.6m. There would have to be the odd dispensation for when players leave at short notice ala Joel Tomkins but if that was brought in it then truely would even the comp out whilst ensuring teams strive to improve.



We need to drag the lower clubs up whereas at the minute it's these clubs that would rather bring the better clubs down.

its not a SC thing, we just dont have the resources to match RU due to the fact they are a national sport with huge tv deals and sponsors such as Heineken Guiness etc pouring millions in, which filters down to the clubs, whereas we have Frontline Bathrooms of Dewsbury

As far as I'm aware, admittedly don't know a lot about RU clubs, aren't a few of them struggling financially?

1) something I have been advocating for years



2) I'd go a little further, it should be a minimum of five in a nineteen man squad. There should be six substitutes, but once you're off you're off, and two of those subs should be 21 years of age or under at the start of that season (maybe 1st January).

Some are bankrolled and losses just paid for but the likes of Northampton Saints who play in a 13,000 capacity stadium turned over £13.175m last year of which £801,314 was profit. [urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/14681036.stm[/url

To put that into perspective Wigans turnover was just over £5.2 million and a profit of around £110K

But we have much the better attendance so where did all that Northampton money come from?

Better sponsorship, use of the stadium for conferences etc, bigger prize money, more expensive admission and probably better merchandise sales.

They got to the final of the Heineken Cup which is broadcast over Europe and as a result TV rights to clubs would be high. Also just checking on their site their prices for a normal league match range from £28 for terrace admission and £40 for a seat in the "Tetley Stand".