With immediate effect etc according to BBC

Another one we've missed, though I doubt there was any real chance in that case.

Great news for England

Good. Like cruncher has been championing for some time, I hope he speaks out about the poor experience he's had playing Union for both club and country. This lad is a top, top athlete who's been scapegoated for England's WC exit. Those more knowledgable ex-RU players haven't used him but the more snobbish press have been quick to jump on him.
I really hope he's pillared in the RU press now and it could/should hopefully stop our lads heads getting turned for more wonga.

What are you doing this weekend Sam?

As delighted as I am to see him back there are plenty so called RU experts who should be hanging their heads in shame over his treatment. Also, whilst I have no affinity with Bath whatsoever, they must be seething. They had a huge potential in their hands and all that has been destroyed by the England management team.
I too hope Sam leaves the dignified silence routine and lets rip into his treatment from certain elements of the dark side. Finally, whilst we may still see defections at a lower level, surely this whole sorry episode will give pause to any top class league players considering taking the plunge?

I've just had a quick look on a Bath RU forum and they seem very quick to blame Lancaster for all this.

Good luck Sam, when you have done a couple of years, or less , back in Aus come and sample the sunny climate in Wigan !

We never replaced Sam Tomkins in the England squad, did we........?....

That doesn't surprise me, but I can't help thinking that Bath wouldn't have got anywhere near Burgess if there hadn't been some kind of promise of an England shirt built into the deal.

I may be wrong on that, of course, but several years ago Stevo said something along the lines of RL failing to compete because so many of these lads were basically being promised international selection if they swapped over.

I find it impossible to imagine Bath having anything to offer Big Sam in comparison to what he had in Aus (where there is also massive money), if there hadn't also been the lure of a much, much bigger stage.

According to some guy on Sky Sports News, England RU brokered the deal with Bath and were set to contribute to their costs. The other Premiership teams complained so the Bath owner went it alone. At this stage, England lost any influence regarding what position Sam played in and the rest is history.

Exactly this. He went to RU to play for England, not Bath. Joining a club side was just a means to an end and the only reason England weren't financing the move was to not upset other clubs. It was Lancaster who first approached Burgess about joining, not Bath or Ford.

The RFU should hang their heads in shame. Bath said he was a forward, England a centre. Not just a centre but an inside centre, a supposed second fly-half. Not that it matters but he was a No.8 (loose forward) all day long. Glad he's back.

, or better still get him in this weekend. The Yawnion fraternity would brick themselves to have there faces rubbed in on TV on their own doorstep.

I'd certainly be looking to introduce him to the crowd on Saturday to get the atmosphere going. To suggest he should come in to the squad/tea is pushing It though. He's borderline superhuman but even Burgess will need to settle back in.

There is some talk that he's packed up and jumped straight on a plane to Oz though.

Yep I'd agree with this. I can understand people wanting to make as much of a headline as possible with it by playing him but it's unrealistic even for a player of Burgess' ability to walk straight into an International match of RL, especially after the soap opera that's surrounded his life the last month or so no doubt weighing heavily on his mind.

Would be great if he's in attendance, but likewise I'm hearing he might be heading to Australia already.

Good to see him back in RL better for him to go back to Souths. If he stayed in UK he would be forever "failed RL" convert . He has been let down by his advisors someone should have told him straight he was not suited to the game at centre. There's not a RL fan in the world who would have picked Burgess as a back there is some arrogance on his part to believe he could cover the centre role. Best to go back to what he does best

I think a few RU pundits have recognised this as well. I am not sure I recall who it was, maybe it was Will Greenwood but someone of that ilk was tweeting England RU had let Burgess down massively.



I am sure there will be further scapegoating and talk of him never going to be good enough (a joke) or running away or whatever but I think there will a lot of people in English RU in general never mind at Bath who will recognise what an almighty mess they have made of this.

I also hope it might make a few RL players think twice about RU. We may still loose players to the NRL but that isn't as bad as lost from the sport entirely.

The trouble is I think any benefit we see with RL players put off RU will be short term. When you see how RU have left the RFL for dust once they went full time I am sure they will adapt and learn from this pretty quickly. Maybe they might decide to "grow their own" and not look to RL, who knows but the threat they pose isn't going away.

Interesting tweet from Phil Wilkinson last night that Shaun Wane had allegedly been seen with Sam Burgess on Tuesday. Make that of it what you will. There were rumours earlier in the year that Wigan had spoken to Sam Burgess about a possible move for 2017, but that was prior to the Sam Tomkins signing.

He wasn't being trained as a centre at Bath but as a flanker which to my mind is exactly the right position for him in RU.

The problem wasn't Bath but England RU who seemingly wanted him in the team at any cost. He wasn't ready to play as a flanker at international level so the idiots in England RU shoved him in at centre.

This is why I agree with JJ about Bath being so fed up about this. England doing what they did and the scapegoating that occurred after this fiasco obviously got Burgess looking long and hard at the way this was going and he's walked away as a result. What a way to screw things up by England RU!

One thing that has surprised me about all this now is the pundits, ex-players and majority of the RU press haven't turned on Burgess at all. quite the opposite in fact.

I would have preferred them all to be slagging Burgess off and hopefully make other potential code switchers wary about 'jumping ship'.

More importantly it is great news for Rugby League. It might cause any of our star players to think twice about moving to the dark side in the future.

Maybe because (whisper it) Sam has to take some of the blame?

Bath didn't kidnap him and force him to play RU; he left of his own accord. I don't know what he imagined would happen to him in RU, he appears to have thought he could walk into the RUWC team with minimal delay (which he actually did, by hook or by crook). And then, hold the front page, it wasn't a roaring success. What a surprise!



Bath are playing him at his natural position. Which is fine. England played him at centre (where he had played for a bit, but was still a novice). He didn't do too much wrong as it turned out, and certainly can't be blamed for England's dismal showing. But I do wonder what SB's ideal scenario was, in his head, and how realistic that ever was.

And rest assured, he *will* be remembered as a "failed rugby league convert" by the English media.

Best read I've come across so far. fansonline.net/rugbyleague/article.php?id=33

Best read I've come across so far. fansonline.net/rugbyleague/article.php?id=33

I wonder what is in any of these lads' heads when they leave to go to Union. In most cases, I'd imagine, it's pots of money ... but Sam B was earning pots of money in League, and at the same time was idolised even by the Aussies - and that takes some doing if you're a Brit. He really was the guy who seemed to have it all.

There was an old phrase in history for when kings made big mistakes - "he was badly advised". A euphemism for "he made a total cock-up, but we have to blame someone else". In this case, I think it would be true, and the person who badly advised our wayward king will most likely have been his agent.

Agents just don’t have the same agenda as the rest of us. Their job is to head from one payday to the next, and they make no discrimination between League or Union.

However, I agree that Sam – who’s an adult, not a child – is still at least partly to blame. Next time, I just hope he turns round to his agent, who
no doubt will be promising him all the wealth and glory under the sun, and asks: “And what happens if it doesn’t turn out like that? Where will I be then?”

Hopefully, if not Sam, that lesson will also have been learned by the many others who even now are being persuaded to try out “the bigger, more global” game.

I agree, no one held a gun to his head and made him sign on the dotted line for RU.

His ideal scenario was fine apart from one fatal flaw. He was going to play for England's RU team....not New Zealand's,

If Burgess was in NZ's squad they'd have still won the WC. If SBW was in the England's squad they'd have still exited at the group stage.