Hang on, that's crediting them with intelligence.



The evidence of the England RU camp would suggest that's in short supply.

The game yesterday was pretty awful and it's hard really to pass comment on any sensible outcomes regarding Sam and his participation in such an odd set up of a game. For me I was glad to see him finish the game with a try and in good health.

where is this Sam is too small for Union stuff coming from? I have to laugh when players smaller than him are the best players in the code.



Clearly those of this opinion have no understanding of Union.

I am a very big sale and union fan as well as Wigan. In fact I was watching union before I even knew league existed. I can now say I much prefer league, but still keep a keen eye on union.



Some people's views on union on here are way off the mark. Tomkins could easily play full back in union. A regular union FB gets called world class every time he joins the attacking line. Chris Aston (granted he is a winger) gets the highest possible plaudits because he runs off players looking for the offload, or late pass out of the back.



Sam would do that all day long, and take advantage of it very easily. He was wasted on the Wing because he was waiting for others to supply him. Get him making those curving runs he makes for Wigan all the time and he would have destroyed any union team. In my opinion, as a union fan, Sam would walk into the national England team.



Any way it doesn't matter, he is ours and how pleased I am of that.

Quade Cooper's other problem is that he is really poor in defence - like Danny McGuire on a bad day, but all the time.

I played rugby union for years (only just retired from a half decent level), so am far from anti-union. I love playing it, but rarely bother watching as its just not that entertaining.



Salford are about to go into a new stadium where Sale will also be allowed to play.

Some fans were a bit miffed at this, but should the Salford club be looking at it as a oppotunity to steal some fans from a new area?

Sale RU lose the best part of £2million a year, apparently, if Salford could hammer their attendences down and get the local kids interested in and playing rugby league, it might well contibute to see Sale fall off the radar as a premiership club, leaving only Newcastle Falcons and Leeds Carnegie (both perrenial strugglers) left inthe north of England.



Rugby Union is for playing, not watching. Its a tough sport, but at an amature level you can use your experience to go on playing a lot, lot longer than league allows you. That's one of the reasons the amature side is so popular. You'll never get rid of this, what you need is the lads in the bar of the RU club talking about and watching Rugby League.

Spot on.... And its always been thus. Boring as hell to watch LIVE at club level. And many armchair RU pundits have never seen a club game live, just the big internationals, which they do well.

I watched that rubbish on Saturday and admit the skill levels were appalling, the passing was way off the mark. The point I would make though when some are saying why would Sam go for what in effect is a 25% pay rise they are missing a big point. IF and it is IF he made a big impact the spin offs and sponsorship he could attract will pale his wage into insignificance. The money a Jonny Wilkinson / Jason Robinson earned outside his 'salary' will have doubled his playing wage. The national media would be interested and that could be the lure that will take him away.

be interesting to know what sam really thought of it all - not the standard 'im glad to have given it a go' line but what he really thought. we like to think he would have thought 'this is boring standing here doing nothing' but it could be the case, as previous posters allude to that the game itself was not that important - the crowd/coverage/contacts/sponsors/meal/drinks etc after it may be what made the impression...



and i dont mean that in a 'our pies are better than yours' more a, what sort of discussions were taking place and with what sort of people

Thats gambling on the fact he will get all them deals though isnt it? Theres no guarantee he will get that is there?

I agree thats why I said it was an IF but as a professional sports star who will back himself to be the best (I'd assume Sam falls fairly squarely into this bracket) the lure of that level of acknowledgment must be a lure. The one thing that is guaranteed is that if he stays in league he will never be more than a big fish in a small pond. The NRL may be the other option to achieve that goal.



Hope I'm wrong and he does stay in SL because on his day he is great to watch and will (if he isn;t already) become the best there is over here. If he does stop he needs advising that he needs to broaden his horizons and not just play in Wigan, reckon we could find a spot for him at Hull KR..





As an aside to this debate I reckon Charnley could make a better RU player than Tomkins, he will have the size and pace to be better than Ashton.

Charnley, Ben Jones Bishop, Ryan Hall and Tom Briscoe have all got the potential to be as good are or better than Ashton in Union and that's why the clubs must do every thing in their powers to keep them in Super League.