Whatever justifications are given, whatever excuses are made, whatever benefits to the game are alleged, this is a move by the RL 100% purely and simply to cave in to Wigan's demands to be allowed to bring in an antipodean centre next season instead of being forced to promote some of their homegrown talent there instead, completely in opposition to the supposed reason for it happening. It will ultimately benefit only the 3 or 4 richest and most successful clubs in the game (who, by very definition, are the richest and most successful clubs and so need no extra benefit at all), making an utter mockery of the whole concept of having a salary cap in the first place. It will force every other club who cannot afford the salary cap as it stands already to face either bankruptcy, or eternal mediocrity and uncompetitiveness (which will ultimately lead to the same thing with ever more disinterested supporters staying at home with their cash to watch Scum Utd. on telly instead). It cannot and will not prevent the talent drain from a league that simply does not have the financial resources to be able to remotely compete with the other markets for that talent.
These are all facts. Story, end of.
Other clubs may eventually benefit too, British RL may even benefit
very slightly in the very short term as well (although it's hard to argue that point given that it is basically just a blank cheque for clubs to be able to go and sign a slightly better class of antipodean in future, ignoring home grown talent a la Wigan's current centre situation instead), but
the only reason this has happened is to give in to pressure to be allowed to cheat their way back to competitiveness from the biggest and noisiest club in the game. It sickens me frankly and makes me angrier and angrier the more I think about it.
