Sorry but I think you're being unreasonable there, can't expect a guy to refrain from commenting on our board for that long

See you are still obsessed with what Ford is alleged to have said. You don't seem to like him much



I think that he would have remained with Bath and gone on to become an international superstar in Union had their ex-players mafia not done a hatchet job on him in the national press, blaming him for England's exit from the WC with almost slanderous comments. Not enough was done to support him through this very difficult period and point out how well he had done in such a short time.

Will Greenwood tweeted today " Am I hearing Sam Burgess has left Bath? If so rugby union has let the lad down..."

"Alleged", their's no alleged about it theirs a video of him from Tuesday with the words coming out of his mouth. You then posted an article in which he's quoted as saying different. Considering 48 hours later Burgess is leaving then think I was pretty spot on about Ford's words being contradictory and casting doubt on his version of events.



Oh the media gave him a hard time no doubt but it was starting to die down to the point that the fingers were starting to point towards the England RU setup.

And whilst he's been hard done, at the same time he's got to shoulder some blame for thinking he could walk into an RU international within about 10/11 months. Sure people like Lancaster would've been sweet talking him but he should've realised how unrealistic the task was and let's not pretend he wasn't given assurances about making the WC before he signed on the dotted line.

The likes of Lancaster and Farrell and the RFU deserve more blame but Sam should've been wise enough to realise the daftness of rushing him into the International team. Even though he wanted to play in the forwards he also shouldn't have urged Bath to pick him there when it was obvious England wouldn't. He should've asked to play every single game possible at centre to give him as much experience of that position as possible before the WC.

I don't think Bath look silly. They financed and signed a top League player in good faith and have put a lot of work into developing him up to a level to be selected to play for the England in the World Cup. You can argue perhaps he shouldn't have been selected before other more experience players but the fact remains he was and he did not let the team down and was in no way to blame for their exit. Indeed it was his more experience teammates who froze under the spotlights.

So Bath like Sam himself are innocents to a degree and have been caught up in the blame game in the aftermath of England's performances which quite understandably got to Sam. Bath appear to have done their best to keep him but obviously have agreed to let him go with reluctance. So Bath have suffered in this affair as they have lost an outstanding player who is already a big draw with their fans.

We may know more at their press conference tomorrow who knows they may have even made a profit on the "heavily financed" deal.

Look on the Bath ru forums. Their gutted

No I agree Bath are pretty innocent in all this. They've not done anything wrong, but basically looking like they've been used by England RU and then been left to mop up the mess the National team made and having their coach and owner coming out trying to say Sam's going to see out his contract only for him to leave straight after has made them look silly.

I would imagine the relationship between England RU and Bath at the moment is pretty frosty as a result of what's gone on. Aren't Bath the club linked with Watkins? If so and if it again came from England urging them to sign an RL player that they could throw into the National side then I'd imagine Bath will have a few reservations now about such a deal.

As for Watkins, I hope he sees out the majority or even all of his career at Leeds. But if he wants to test himself in the NRL then fair enoughto the guy. But for the love of god stay away from RU like your life depended on it lad.

It would be a hell of a lot easier for Watkins to make a good impact at RU than Sam. As a Leeds fan obviously would want him to stay with us
But if he left it would make no odds to me be it NRL or RU. I think from memory he has a young family and a partner not so keen to go down under. It depends what motivates someone. Rather than seeing the negative of how Sam was treated may see the positives of others who have made it and the chance to play on a very big stage internationally

What others recently though? Jason Robinson is about it.

Remember it'd be with England RU, as great a talent as SBW is and even though he's been successful with NZ, even he couldn't have polished the turd that was England.

England issue was poor coaches, they have some good players they had a poor World Cup but I am sure they will be fine in future.

I suppose it depends what you class as successful. I would suggest Chris Ashton has had a decent career in Union

Kyle Eastmond, a guy who spent a proper amount of time in RU to be experienced enough for World Cup selection in a position that he wasn't forced into like Burgess.

Didn't get picked for the World Cup with Burgess shoe horned in instead.

I'm surprised he's going now, but glad he is.

Hopefully RU clubs will be less likely to target RL players - this is easily the biggest misfire in the signing of RL players since RU went pro. There will also never again be any agreement, tacit or otherwise, to fast track any converts into the England RU team. Without that carrot RU only really looks attractive from a money perspective.

In the end though the main reason for being glad to see him back in RL is that he is a world class RL player.

I'm sad that he didn't prove himself in the game. Part of which was out off his control. I think in years to come he will be seen as a flop. The fact he was mistreated will get forgotten by the RU media.

The other part of me is happy that he is back in the game he was built for. He would have been good at union, excelled even. But the game could never really have fully utilised him, as there was not a position in the game which suits his skillset like it does in league

Couldn't care less what a union fans think. Most comments are only from international RU fans anyway, and they know nothing about the sport.

To be fair, most Union fans comments I've seen have been well balanced and generally not blaming Burgess himself.

Big fat lolz at Mike Ford though.

Shontayne Hape, Big Les

There are undoubtedly some rare individuals who can and have shown that they can excel in either code. But for the majority of ordinary mortals, even supremely talented and skilled rugby players, excellence comes from the shear graft and application of playing the sport they choose to play. That old mantra of "to be an expert takes 10000 hours of practice" isn't so far off the mark. It is therefore muddled thinking by the decision makers in either code, to go looking for short cuts by poaching players from each others codes. This to me is to shirk the responsibility that sport has to develop its own talent in favour of an "easy win", an instant fix.

It is very easy for RL to point the finger at RU as the main culprit of cross code poaching of players, the majority of high profile code swaps of established players seem to go in that direction. But that ignores the flow from RU to RL pre (official) professionalisation of RU. In both instances success in the player changing codes was from from nailed on. With out pointing the finger at any particular player or blaming any player for following the money, the time that a player can make good money out of either code of rugby is limited. I think it is significant that the flow of players between codes has generally been in a direction that follows the relative gradient in the salary caps of the two sports.

Whilst I fully understand the imperative for a player to maximise their earnings potential. It is my experience that those that follow the money as their main focus seldom make the best, most productive, settled or happiest employees. With a knock on effect on their contemporaries who often resent the "over paid superstar"

Hopefully clubs and players alike will re-evaluate their criteria for what might make a successful code switch.

Joel Tomkins, Andy Farrell, Barrie -Jon Mather, Henry Paul, Stephen Myler. All capped by England RU. Myler has probably been the most successful long term, holding down the 10 shirt on and off for Northampton for nearly 10 years now.

That's the critical part. And it's not just physical or skill sets, Chev Walker had all that but take him out of Leeds and stick him down in the Westcountry with no support network and no mates and you also have to have the right mind set. Eastmond has had the same problems. Jason Robinson joined Sale - 10 minutes from where he was playing with Wigan, he wouldn't have had to move house.

Lee Smith too. Didn't he say he missed his mothers yorkshire puddings or something daft?

The relocation from family & friends is equally important when recruiting players (& coaching staff) from down under or vice versa.

Trouble is, it's an unknown in lots of cases. Some players - indeed folk in every walk of life - are fine when put into a totally new environment yet others are little short of traumatised. Not always possible to determine how it'll go if it's the first time it's happened to someone.

It's less likely to be an issue if they have friends/family with them.