'Morgan Escare could become a cult hero... but it's the right time to leave Wigan Warriors'

What are your thoughts on Morgan Escare’s pending departure?

Alex Graham: I think it will be a relief for the club to free up salary cap room and it’ll be one less salary to pay during and after the current climate.

I think Escare came to the club and produced performances which were expected of him, he was initially a popular player amongst supporters and did a job.

However, since getting the opportunity to sign Man of Steel winner Zak Hardaker and NRL speed-freak Bevan French, who has adapted brilliantly to the competition, options are limited.

Personally I think he suffered some unfair criticism from supporters at times over the last year, particularly after he was played out of position during the loss to London away.

If he stays in Super League and signs for a mid-table club he’ll become a cult hero.

Robert Kenyon: I think it’s a welcome move, we have French and Hardaker who can play full-back as well as Umyla Hanley in the reserves, so Escare was just taking up cap space.

It’s a shame because he had a really good season and then hardly figured under Lam.

I wish him well and hope he reaches the same form again. He was a very exciting player to watch.

Darren Wrudd: If the reports are indeed correct and Morgan Escare is released from his contract at Wigan, first thoughts are that it is not really unexpected. It’s a proper shame really as Morgan has a great talent and could have done really well for us.

But with the excess of very high quality backs in our squad, there is only so much cover that we need, and it will do his career development no good whatsoever to be sat on the bench for another year.

He did particularly well at Wakefield last year and Chris Chester cited him as one of the reasons they avoided the danger of relegation, but a late season shoulder injury set him back further still. I think any Super League side would be lucky to get his signature and the little livewire will no doubt come back to haunt us in no time. Good luck Morgan, sorry you didn’t get a proper run at cementing a place.

Jon Lyon: It’s the right thing to do for the sake of Morgan’s career. I can understand why the fans love him, he’s an exciting runner with the ball, full of enthusiasm and has shown flashes of brilliance. Sadly he’s not a young man any more. If he was 22 then you could make a case for him staying and looking to improve and win his spot in a year or two. But Morgan is 28 and needs to be playing week in week out. There’s not a chance he would be picked ahead of Bevan French or Zak Hardaker at fullback and there’s no point him spending weeks in the reserves or flitting from one loan club to another. Escare is a good player, but the truth is, defensively and decision making especially, he’s just not quite “Wigan class”. He’s been entertaining to watch though and I wish him well with the rest of his career.

Which youngster – released by Wigan – would you have liked to have seen stay at the club?

Alex Graham: Considering Wigan produce so many quality and international standard professional players, I think they’ve been very good at release and retention decision making.

Over the weekend I was watching highlights of St Helens away in 2003 when Luke Robinson made his hat-trick debut, which was after Kev Brown made his debut earlier in the year on Good Friday. Both players left Wigan and had consistent careers as key play makers at their respective clubs, but it does make you wonder if they’d have gone to the next level had they stayed at the club.

However, hindsight it a wonderful thing and, had both those players stayed, we may never have signed the likes of Harry Sunderland winners Thomas Leuluai and Blake Green.

Robert Kenyon: You can’t look further than Sean Long, and boy did he makes us pay for it. Every time we played Saints he kicked us to death and took pleasure out of it.

Looking back at old games where he figured you could see how good he was, but someone made the decision, for reasons we can only guess and use rumour, and swapped him and £100,000 for Lee Hansen to Widnes.

I bet whoever made that deal on our part is probably working high up in Government now with those negotiating skills... flipping heck, eh?

Darren Wrudd: There have been a few names over the years who have done really well after leaving Wigan, Luke Robinson and Kevin Brown spring to mind, but add in team captains like Stephen Wild, Jack Hughes and Rhodri Lloyd and you begin to see what quality comes through the ranks here at Wigan.

I particularly would have liked to see Chris Melling kept on for a few years though.

As a young player, he went through a similar journey to Dom Manfredi with two knee reconstructions, and bounced back well with some blistering performances at full-back.

He could kick too, I seem to remember 10 goals kicked in the south of France at one point against Limoux in the Challenge Cup.

But in a selection headache, it seemed the choice was between Chris Ashton and Chris Melling, but when the choice was made it felt almost a slap in the face when Ashton walked away soon after to play union instead. Melling went on to forge a good career at London and was a class full back, but with short careers in this game is now a fully qualified physiotherapist and no doubt will go on to make a great career from that too.

I liked ‘Mello’ and would have loved to see him here for a while after, and perhaps those few baren years may have bourne some fruitful results with his help.

Jon Lyon: Sean Long is the obvious choice of someone we let go who went on to have a phenomenal career. I’m not sure we can really blame the club for letting him go if he was struggling to come back from serious injury at the time. We can’t keep everyone and these decisions are made every year, occasionally some choices, like Long, prove to be the wrong one.

One player I was very sad to see leave was Shaun Briscoe. He never looked out of place for the season and a bit he was in the team. Again I can’t blame him for moving on in 2003, aged just 20, with the majestic Kris Radlinski firmly lodged in the number 1 shirt. Who was to know three years later Radlinski would sadly have to retire from injury. Briscoe went on to have an excellent career with both Hull clubs, and also played for England. His greatest achievements were making the Super League Dream Team in 2004 and having possibly the greatest broken nose of any Super League player!

Should Super League introduce the NRL’s ‘six again’ rule?

Alex Graham: One of the biggest criticisms of the modern game is how stop/start it’s become but this rule speeds up play very well. Not only does it speed up the game, it allows the attacking team to build up momentum which opens the game up. I think we’re starting to see the end of wrestle and repeated block-plays and the resurgence of play-what-you-see style rugby.

Robert Kenyon: Definitely, it gives the attacking team 6 more without the referee stopping the game. I think it’s a fantastic idea and the games flow so well in the NRL.

Darren Wrudd: For those of you who are not fully aware, in the NRL, when an official spots certain ruck infringements during a tackle he can wave the signal for another six tackles rather than blow a penalty.

More serious infringements during the tackle still bring on the whistle though.

This can have the effect of giving an attacking team two or more sets of six concurrently without the inherent delay of a penalty awarding the defending side extra time to reset. The speed of the game is awesome and there seems no respite for a team on its haunches.

How many times have we seen certain sides laying on or with lazy arms on the ball slowing down the play the ball, purely to give their own side time to reset?

Not any more, and it would be a great addition over here to help a dominant side press the advantage rather than slow it down so others can keep up.

Now here is the rub, in a system where the RFL seems constantly to pander to the slowest common denominator, will they be brave enough to take up a rule which means the fittest and fastest clubs may get the advantage?

Or will they see it as a rule which would penalise the smaller clubs and their players whom may not be as physically fit as some others? I suspect the latter, but if that’s the case how long will it be before we behave like a ridiculous school sports day and crown every club equal champions in October so we don’t hurt Gary Hetherington’s feelings? I say bring it on, its exciting and rewards good play.

Jon Lyon: I have mixed feelings. It seems to be working in the NRL in terms of entertainment, keeping the game flowing and increasing the speed of the game. Speeding the game up is a worry though. We have introduced rule after rule to make the game flow and speed up, and there needs to be a limit where player welfare is concerned as to how few breaks we are giving them on the pitch. Players aren’t robots and, while tired players means more gaps and more tries, it also usually means more injuries. I’d be interested to hear what the players thoughts on the rule were, maybe they should have the casting vote.