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.

Not sure that stands scrutiny. I'd say a player's wife/girlfriend is just as prone to homesickness - maybe more so, given she's not part of a team. I suspect you'd not need to look too far to find players of various sports cutting short stints abroad to keep a partner happy.

I miss my Mum's Yorkshire puddings. Worse than that though is not having a decent cup of tea for 28 years. Yorkshire water is irreplaceable.

You can buy it bottled, problem solved