I'd think it would be vital. He's going to have to learn another sport from scratch. I can see that they would want him to be released early.



It would be a shame to see him played on the wing, and that's about all he will be able for if he doesn't get a good pre-season. FWIW I think he could do well, but he is going to have to face the Chev factor. Local Northern lad moves to the Westcountry away from all family and friends.



Ashton has done well partly because he started in a great team in a lesser league, and not that far away from his hometown. He was able to learn the game with relatively little pressure. I did laugh when hearing Jeremy Guscott talking about his tries on Saturday, saying that "you can't coach support play like that". Maybe not in Union, but it's a fundamental of League and Ashton will have been coached support on the inside shoulder from the day he started playing the game.

not thee jeremy guscott a man of virtue who is known for telling the truth cdnedge.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/541890.stm

not thee jeremy guscott a man of virtue who is known for telling the truth cdnedge.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/541890.stm

Fissler used to write for the League Express in the days when I was in the capital as an economic refugee ....

For every Jason Robinson, there's a Lee Smith or Chev Walker.



I wonder if Danny Williams thought he was going sweep all before him when he left Leeds too ?



Likewise, in the days we used to get players from the coal fields of S.Wales, for every Lewis Jones, there were the likes of David Young, John Gallagher or that big bloke that occasionally turned out for St Helens.

On the fact of it, it might be bad news for Saints, but let's face it has hardly been a state secret that a) he fancied a pop at Union and b) he might go when his contract was up.



Surely, any half decent CEO would have his mind on this factor when undertaking the recruitment not only for this season, but when in a couple of weeks times, he starts dusting the cheque book off and heading down under for next seasons players.



The other obvious point is, given the fickle nature of our sport, it could be quite possible for any play to run out next week and suffer a season-ending injury. Far more devastating than someone you know is going in xxx months time. Teams have to cope with that sort of thing most seasons.



The one thing we can be positive about, the Rugby League world is quite capabile of generating another Chris Ashton or Kyle Eastmond .... Not so sure the Rugby Union world is.

Maybe he won't be joining Bath, Sale on the other hand...

Absolutely....grind my teeth at the the way he is stuck on some sort of pedestal when - as you state - it's the type of play we see all the time in RL. Imagine how much we would hae to suffer continued replays if any of the tries scored by the likes of Brough, Burrow, BJB etc etc at the weekend were scored by one of the yawnion boys.



A break-through for me is my dyed in the wool RU supporting father-in-law agreeing to attend a relatively local Leeds away RL (Wigan being the favourite). As a Sale supporter he has heard the rumours about Eastmond joining them...so might prefer a visit to Widnes instead. We'll see.

Yep, and that was my opinion of him!

You can't pretend Eastmond doesn't have the potential to be a really good RL player, so it definitely is bad for the game in England if he goes. What ought to be most worrying is that SL doesn't produce standout prospects on a regular basis, at least in the backs - we simply can't replace the likes of Eastmond without going for the easy NRL option.



It's also yet another signal to young players in RL that it is a small sport compared to Union in terms of money and profile. If anything, it seems that in England at least that particular gap is widening.

For me its club before country everytime. I don't want to wind everyone up but if it helps our chances of regaining the title this season by him going then I'd take it. That England team will be shocking for a few years even with him in it

Brian Moore mentions the learning Ashton got from RL almost every game - then he is a quality broadcaster