Most league players who go to Union have to do well or they will be classed as poor. I remember after watching Sam Tomkins play against the Aussies for Barbarians the guy who works for Sky and speaks about Union on Sky Sports News (don't know his name) was asked if Joel Tomkins will do well in Union at which he made a little dig at Sam for playing poorly against the Barbarians. From what I saw in the game Sam had nothing to do, the Aussies dominated up front and Sam barely got any of the ball, yet as he didn't play well the assumption came that he was poor. Even though he scored the one chance he was given. I've never heard a Union fan state that a league player has done 'average' or 'okay' without putting a negative after it.

Joel was always a second rower in my eyes when he was here, similar to Luke Lewis although obviously not in the same class. Feel he was forced to play centre due to injuries but didn't do terrible and scored a brilliant try at Wembley against the Rhinos, he's still fairly young and adapting so give him time. He definitely has the attributes to be a quality Union player wherever his position may be.

Thing is with union is that positions are a lot more specialised than league, where running and handling is much more a premium. Our forwards have to compete at the breakdown, which you don't have. I don't think a league player will ever make it as a union forward, the skill sets are too different. A union forward would probably never make it in league for the same reason

Thing is with union is that positions are a lot more specialised than league, where running and handling is much more a premium. Our forwards have to compete at the breakdown, which you don't have. I don't think a league player will ever make it as a union forward, the skill sets are too different. A union forward would probably never make it in league for the same reason

Apart from Brad Thorn? Your right though a Union forward is more about the work in contact situations rather than open play. On Tomkins I can always remember thinking hes a great second row but wouldnt be part of a succesful team as a centre so cant imagine he has enough class to play there for England RU, maybe a Shontayne Hape type player

Thing is with union is that positions are a lot more specialised than league, where running and handling is much more a premium. Our forwards have to compete at the breakdown, which you don't have. I don't think a league player will ever make it as a union forward, the skill sets are too different. A union forward would probably never make it in league for the same reason

Many people also forget that after a very ropey first season Scott Quniell turned out pretty good before RU went pro and nabbed him back

As for Joel, as some of the other Wiganers have said, he was a great second rower, who initially he had a good run of form at loose forward as well (after O'Loughlins horrific knee injury). He's got a decent pair of hands and step for a forward. When he was switched to centre he never quite fit in, especially defensively as its a difficult position to read. I suspect if he'd grown up in Oz they'd have stuck him in the centre to start with and he'd probably have been great.

He's just being looked after, so they can entice his brother to the dark side.
Goulding has shown himself to be a far better centre in his absence - Madge had a blind spot there. Whenever the ball went in their direction it was panic stations.

It's a shame we can't allow discussions like this on the open forum, but history shows us that we just can't. If we do, within a week or two the whole forum will be clogged with trolls who only want to disrupt threads and slag people off. That's not what this forum is about.

So, for the benefit of the OP, our rule is that all matters relating to rugby union, whether about the game itself, or ex-league players who now play it, go into a separate sub-section of the forum which is visible only to members who have made at least 100 trouble-free posts in the other sections like this one.

This way, we get to see who has joined to troll (and get rid of them before they do any major damage) and who has joined to engage in genuine discussion. Anyone in the latter category is welcome on here.

Anyone who has little or no appreciation of Rugby League, and finds it difficult mustering 100 posts, is on the wrong forum anyway.

Hope this helps.

(This thread would usually go into the cross-code forum now, but as the OP won't be able to see it in there, I'm locking it and leaving it here).