The Mole rarely gets anything wrong. And looking at his tweets from the past few hours, he's actually saying Leeds are favourites to sign Sam Burgess, and he's not going back to Souths "anytime soon." When he jumps off the fence, The Mole is rarely wrong.

I see us signing him for a year or two.

Looking at his tweets he's not saying anything of the sort, just that he won't be going back to Souths. I suspect he'll stay in RU.

You must be blind, my friend. Read his tweets from the past 5-6 hours. In particular the one to @FredTHFC99

Says he's more likely to go to Leeds than South's...doesn't say whether he's even more likely to stay in yawnion

He's off for a Bath instead

Does anyone really think he's staying in union? Dropped from the Bath game, then goes and sits next to McBanana at the Eng-Fra game. Talk about adding fuel to a fire that Burgess hasn't tried to extinguish.

Well you soon change your mind. It was only just over a week ago you were posting the following.



Now your telling other people what they should think.

May be Souths don't want or need him back? Having opted out of the club for a different code on a three year contract, I assume the Souths made plans to deal with that reality. I don't get to watch the NRL so I don't know how competitive their pack looks with out big Sam But if they're going OK maybe Souths have other recruitment priorities?

I would love to see us sign Sam Burgess, but I wonder if the NRL will prove a stronger £ pull. That's assuming that he leaves Bath in the first place.

Agree, there are many possibilities / permutations. But the longer the rumours continue, and the less Burgess does to quash them, the more a deal looks likely. Especially when people who are genuinely itk (not in an attention seeking way like Gotcha) are starting to report it.

If the RFL/SL could part fund Sam Tomkins salary to stop him defecting to RU could not (should not) they do the reverse in attracting big Samback from RU?
The other side of the same coin it seems to me.
I wonder if this is what GH is trying to engineer?

It certainly could be the case that beneath this particular pall of smoke there is a fire, but on the other hand...

One things for certain, all this speculation and excitement puts Sam in the shop window and it won't be doing our season ticket sales any harm either. So I doubt anyone will be in a rush to clarify things.

I just can't see it. He only left for RU in November and didn't start training until December. Many didn't expect him to make the England squad for the WC and he proved them wrong. Why would he come back now.

Because he went to appear in that WC. The way England rushed him into the side it's obvious they were behind his move even if they claim it was all Bath. Probably why he went, because he was promised a WC spot.

And he played in that World Cup. Who knows, he might have played more (even if it was off the bench) had England not bombed out of the tournament after the group stages.

Now the question is does he fancy hanging around, learning a new position in the back row and trying to work his way back into the England side again to establish himself as first choice for the 2020 World Cup?

It'll probably involve some wet nights out on loan while he learns and makes his mistakes away from the spotlight of the Premiership. Playing in front of a few hundred at smaller clubs in the third tier doesn't necessarily strike me as the sort of thing that will inspire or motivate a player who wants to be involved in the big occasions.

He's not a union player at all.. doesn't have the attributes to be able to nail down an England spot at flanker or at centre. The man is made for RL without a doubt. He's a superstar of an RL player... and this sport we love should do everything in it'ds power to bring him back be it NRL or ESL.

I think that is exactly what GH is aiming for. Its pretty much the only way the deal can be done, unless we release more shirts next year than we have this.........

To bring in such a rule would need clubs to vote for this. I think 4 or 5 might vote yes and the rest wouldn't entertain it. If Leeds want him they will probably have to fund this themselves.

Because he could go back to union in 2 years and have just as good a chance of getting back in the next WC side as he would if he stuck out the four years? That, of course, also assumes he wishes to repeat the spectator experience the next time the tournament reaches its semi final stage.

I don't think you are right about this point. If he walks away from Bath and RU at this point in time I can't see him getting a second go. That would be especially true if Lancaster and Farrell end up paying the price for Englands spectacular failure to progress in their home World Cup. I think the choice he's making is whether he has any further interest in being an RU player / drawing RU wages. If he dips out I think he's finished with RU, on the other hand he could come back to league any time he wants.

He might be finished in any case, depending on who wins the power struggle at the RFU.

The bulls fan with the long name - Maccaabullybooooooaaaaaazzzzzaaa - or similar, has just asked whether Caisley's still SB's manager over on the VT. Anyone know? Interesting negotiations with GH if so.

All the noise coming out of Bath, mostly through Mike Ford, is that Burgess is committed to staying and will be playing in Bath's upcoming European games at 6.

I get the feeling it would take an astronomical offer to convince Bath to part with him, and to induce Burgess to leave Bath and move back north.

Travelling up to Leigh to watch a RL international whilst his Bath teammates are playing one of the top teams in the division doesn't strike me as too committed to his RU cause.

So clearly many ifs in Burgess signing but if he did sign for a year before heading to Oz what are people's thoughts on:
His best position? Prob 13 for me but he can play prop and 2nd row, or centre lol.
And his fitness. He will have gone to GF with Souths, short break for his bust cheek then into ru and then possibly straight in rl pre season training if it drags on. That's a lot coupled with the inevitable fitness loss from sitting on a ru bench.

Mike Ford has been consistent in saying Burgess has a big future in Union and has been saying for weeks that he wants to increase the length of his contract. He signed him as a 6 and only played him at centre to ease him into playing Union and because Lancaster had request it.

In fact it was against Lancaster's wishes that Ford swapped him to 6 where he has made good progress under the tutelage of Francois Louw one of the best flankers in the world. I agree with Ford and believe he will make a good Union back rower possibly a ball carrying No 8.

Whilst World Cups are a good thing to aim for we should not forget that the England team play a lot of internationals every year and most of these are sell out occasions. So there will be plenty of chance to play on the big stage all over the world before the next World Cup. Apart from the annual Six Nations there are annual fixtures against most of the top sides both home and away and coming up is a Lions tour of NZ in 2017 which for many players is a greater experience than a World Cup. All these will bring in extra pay and celebrity status.

So Sam has many things to consider before leaving Union in a pique and I have a feeling he will want to become a big success and prove his doubters wrong.

I really hope we can persuade him to sign for the Rhinos but the longer the delay the more chance he will stay put IMO.

Maybe. But on the other hand seeing so few people attend a League International at Leigh will bring him down to earth with a bang after experiencing the buzz from the 80,000 at Twickenham.