So a sport which shares the same name is having its home world cup, the coverage it receives (yes our NGB do our sport no favours) is out of proportion to the inferior game played out on the field, a former league star is in the England team and you don't think it should be discussed on here, are you really that dim?!

Of course the bigger laugh really is a) on you for spending so much time on here and b) those who watch that dreadful game all year round.

I can't explain why RU is so popular, though I can say the same for Football, One Direction, reality TV, and McDonald's.

Anyone for SB to be back at Souths for the start of next season? After all, he admitted himself that he was going to the Dark Side for a crack at the World Cup.

is there a reason that this cretin still isn't banned?

Come home Sam... some things are worth more than money lad.

It was borderline. Initial contact was with the shoulder and he relaxed his arm when he realised it had ridden up onto the neck. I've seen them given, but it would have been harsh, absolutely no intent from Burgess.
Penalty at the most IMO.

Interesting to see what Sam Burgess was up to after the game https://www.facebook.com/KyrosSports/po ... 4084447146 . He must have been walking around trying to find people who could actually play rugby.

Interesting to see what Sam Burgess was up to after the game https://www.facebook.com/KyrosSports/po ... 4084447146 . He must have been walking around trying to find people who could actually play rugby.

Robshaw: Six tackles, five carries, three metres, two passes, no turnover.

That is a total joke!

Can't believe these stats! I got them off the BBC sports website.

Apparently Billy V has been gobbing off at a bash saying Farrell and not Lancaster makes the team selections and that he's never been coached by Lancaster either. The whole squad was disrupted by Burgess's inclusion and that they weren't happy about it!! https://twitter.com/InfernoProTV www.express.co.uk/sport/rugbyuni ... ugby-Union Ah so now it's all down to a RL convert in the coaching set up and a RL player in the squad that they've played like shat all over the park. Apparently Farrell has been making them play like a rugby league team..HAHAHAHAHA They might have actually won if they had!

Apparently Billy V has been gobbing off at a bash saying Farrell and not Lancaster makes the team selections and that he's never been coached by Lancaster either. The whole squad was disrupted by Burgess's inclusion and that they weren't happy about it!! https://twitter.com/InfernoProTV www.express.co.uk/sport/rugbyuni ... ugby-Union Ah so now it's all down to a RL convert in the coaching set up and a RL player in the squad that they've played like shat all over the park. Apparently Farrell has been making them play like a rugby league team..HAHAHAHAHA They might have actually won if they had!

Agent pan face has done a cracking job.....england are the most one dimensional team I have ever seen

Just as an aside but, despite it being the Express, I'm still shocked at how depressingly, awfully, sewer-lickingly low the standards of professional journalism have fallen.
That article is god-awful. The title is wrong, it's terribly structured, doesn't have any corroboration or supporting quotes and a section of it is repeated as if someone has copied and pasted the section twice by accident.
There are people getting paid for this sh|t that I'd be disappointed if one of the lads I coach produced for their schoolwork. And some of my lads are thick as 2 short planks.

It will be interesting to see what happens next with Sam....Writings on the wall for Lancaster - presumably he'll resign after next weekend and without Lancaster I'm not sure whether Sam will have a place in the England squad. Presumably the only reason he went to Union was to play Internationals. Hopefully he'll get some tempting offers from the NRL.

He's off to Leeds a Rhinos by the sound of it

There was an article to the same effect in the Telegraph (I've criticism of coaches). You have to agree SB's selection at centre with so little experience was ludicrous. You have to agree that someone on the coaching staff had a fixation with him playing at all costs irrespective of how they squeezed him in. His selection also screwed up their flexibility with substitutions. The next big hook for SB was to be a Lions tour but I'm not sure they would dare select him after the England debacle and the Irish chaps comments. If I were SB I would try to get back to RL as soon as possible and not waste his short career in a game he may never fully adapt to nor be appreciated in. In RL he is a great player, why throw away the future legacy of that?

The irony of you posting that after a SL season that delivered more fans purely because there were 12 more games is quite delicious.........

In other news......has Sam ever been on the winning side against 'stralia? Maybe that's what was talking to Izzy about......at least in the AFL he couldn't lose to the national side....

I have played Union from age 7 to age 43 & other than the odd broken leg/dislocated fingers etc i loved every minute of it (both during & post-match).

However, NEVER have I watched a Union game & felt "that was worth 2 hours of my time".

The best way to watch RU I find is some time after the match has finished, with Sky controller in hand. x6, x12 or x30 speed with which I watch it depends on the relative turgidity before me.

coolest story ever bro.......tell the 8 million watching the RWC or the 6 Nations....I'm sure they'd be swayed immediately

Keep going, the century beckons

Can we get Sam back in League before this post reaches 100 pages?

To sum the guy up. I asked my wife to compare the photos of Sam and Jamie Roberts before the Wales game. I asked her to say who she thought was the heaviest, her answer Roberts. Gobsmacked when I told her it was the other way around, the bloke is probably one of the best athletes on the planet IMO

Agree that he should come 'home'. Some of the articles and comments from some called Union experts are down right disgraceful and smacks of nothing but class snobbery. If the England union forwards were nearly as good as Sam they might just have a decent team.

And don't get me started on the opinion of some that the failure to qualify was due to the Northern influence on their precious game.

You've done it now - we love a challenge on here, tha' knows

Sam Burgess is so good that despite having limited experience in Union and even more limited as a centre he completely eclipsed Jamie Roberts and shut him out of the game. On the other hand Roberts struggled to contain Burgess and needed assistance by way of Wales adjusting their defensive structure to put 2 players on Burgess.

This is the much lauded Jamie Roberts, one of the best centres in World Rugby Union, veteran of almost 150 Top Tier Club games, 72 Test matches for Wales, 1 Barbarians appearance and 3 X a Lions Rep. COMPLETELY SHUT OUT BY BURGESS!

England were twice 10 points up and still 7 points ahead when Burgess left the field, only morons and bigoted idiots with an agenda would blame Burgess for that loss.

Why on earth would I wish to tell that to 8 million RWC watchers?

That would be akin to me haranguing the 7 million Eastenders viewers that their choice of TV soap is crap.

Each to their own, there's no accounting for taste etc etc

We got him back! Welcome home Sam!! I knew it was only a matter of time (& Sam achieving an ambition to play in the RUWC) when I saw his face during his Union debut as explained in OP.

well, many of us said he only went to play in this WC and that he had had assurances he would be in the squad as part of the deal to move.despite being rubbished by many other people it now appears that was correct.

1 years 'rest' from the rigorous NRL, time in the spotlight worldwide and a bag full of cash to return still with his prime years left.Whatever way you look at it i doubt Sam Burgess regrets his year out.

Oh yes!