on saturday for the Barbarians against Australia. I know he's signed up for three more years but seems a strange thing to do.

He's clearly moving to Saracens when his Wigan 3 year thing is up. This just enables him to get some extra money outside of the salary cap.

It's a pretty worrying development though. If Wigan are willing to let their players play representative Union whilst under contract, it opens league up to the potential of our best players being cherry picked using games like this and meaningless international friendlies.

I just don't see how Wigan benefit from it? Like the partnership with Saracens, I can't see any real benefits for 'us' in this.

Some worrying undertones in Leneghan's press release? Wigan looking to move to Union perhaps? I just can't see how buttering up Union benefits RL. If anything it will just further expose our young players to Union, which rather bizarely seems to be Leneghan's intention.

It's bizarre frankly.

You commit to RL and then go and play a Union match.

Also, he's a prize asset - surely you wouldn't want him to risk himself in a meaningless friendly in another sport?

It reminds me a little of Renault F1 allowing Robert Kubica to go rallying in the off-season. He had an awful crash and it's not clear if he'll ever come back.

It's all about building his profile obviously to a new audience but I can't believe the way Wigan are spinning it. It just comes across as he wants to play Union and will be on his way at some point.

The only remote positive I can see is publicity for Rugby League (for the 3 years before he does head for RU).

Whereas currently most Rugby Union fans would struggle to name a single currently active Rugby League player, at least with this BaaBaa's game one of our sport's players will become known on a wider scale, and may encourage a bit of interest. Tomkins is undoubtably one of the most exciting players to watch in SL and someone who will stand out if he plays on Sunday.

It could be decent publicity for RL or then again could even more publicly show how we are struggling to keep our top players. We'll wait and see I guess - but I hope he has a good game.

I think its great for the game and it shows how far Sam has come as an ambassador for his sport. Only a few months ago he was regarded as a 'bad boy' of the game but now he has received an invitation to play for the Ba Bas, one of the most prestigious honours that a rugger player can receive.

The official club regulations of the Ba Bas state:

I think its good that the wounds of past hatred between the two codes are being healed and rugger fans can get a chance to admire the skills of someone who maybe wasn't fortunate enough to go to the right school or the right university so wouldn't otherwise have had the chance to play the game. But maybe if he has the right attitude he could one day in the future make it. Just because you live in a deprived town like Wigan doesn't mean the door is closed for success in life.

Great news for Wigan just like Thomas was going to be.

Honest

I think this opportunity respresents a way for both Wigan & Tomkins to enhance Sam's value to RU. I'm sure Wigan are somewhat resigned to losing Sam to RU at some point, whether he completes the 3 years before he can trigger talks or whatever but what they'll be looking at is the fee that they receive. If he plays well in these sort of games, he'll personally be able to negotiate better terms and i'm sure Wigan will want a kings ransom and this will strengthen their hand. It may lead to the RFU/a team in RU whatever, literally throwing an offer they can't refuse to Wigan in the next couple of years.

I see it as a win win for Wigan & Sam, not really for RL as such, though i'll watch it with interest.

I have just sent Sam a quick tweet informing him that if he trys anything fancy like running with the ball he may get subbed.

As Wigan born and bred, but now living in the Midlands,IMHO this is the most positive thing to happen in RL since the inception of SL.
I have a lot of friends in Gloucester, Worcester and Bath who for years, have given me (mainly) good humoured grief about how League is a minority sport played only by cloth capped, ferret lovers in Lancs and Yorks.
However I have noticed over the past twelve months or so that many of them are quietly aknowledging that we've got a lot of things that can improve the entertainment factor of their game. This is mainly because of the sucess few years ago of Jason Robinson, along with the resurgence of Wales (Edwards influence) as a dominant force.
Combine this with names like Owen Farrell, Chris Ashton, Kyle Eastmond, and, most recently the publicity around the Tomkins boys, they really are now begining to accept the skills in our game.
Believe me most RU fans certainly know of and admire Sam in a big way, far from taking anything away from our game this is only adding to the interest in Super League, with lots of new followers both on TV and watching live, Two good mates of mine from Walsall are now regular visitors to the DW.
I really hope Sam plays to his pottential and paves the way for more of this type of activity , which imo will surely benefit both codes (mainly ours) in the long term.

should be a good experience for him..... are the Balls "uncatchable" in rugger too.....

Rugby Union - a game of kicking
Sam tomkins, - tug at cathing (good at other things before Wigan starts crying)

gonna have to be on it to impress your future employers Sammy boy