'Grand statements' made here with little to back it up.



'England will never fast track a RL convert again'-how can you possibly say that?

'Burgess never went to play club rugby'-how do you know?

'Burgess would never make it at centre'-how do you know? Already a full international, don't forget a union centre is far different to league, at times used a 'crash centre' to break the line then offload, and also defend solidly in midfield, take Brad Barritt for example.



While I see your points I always find it dangerous making statements with nothing to back them up, just your option.

If Bastareaud can be a centre, so can SB...



But yeah, whilst no-one *knows* 100% what's inside his head, I think that "Burgess never went to play club rugby" doesn't sound too controversial a statement to me.

Not about controversy, it's about comments with no backing. That's the issue with this chat, too many options which are supported by anything.

Yes, but it's about opinions, isn't it? If anyone believes SB was happy to swap Syndney for Bath without the additional bonus of international rugby they are deluded. In my opinion.

The moment the World Cup was over, everyone was asking what he would do next? No one but Mike Ford seemed to think he'd be content to stay and play for Bath.

Doesn't it go right back to who contacted who right at the start? Was it SB who started talking to Twickers or the other way round? Did the Union mob see a coup potential in their latest attempt to score one over us?



He was certainly sold a pup either way.



I genuinely can't believe SB looked at his league future options and decided "nah, I can do much better in rainy GB in a sport I know little about away from family & barbies on the beach".

We'll never know until when (if) he writes his memoirs (with colour-in sections or otherwise - seen Hock's latest missive yet?) or Wikileaks hack Bath's or Twickenham's systems.



In the meantime, all we've got is the Union hacks blaming him for disrupting the otherwise oh-so-harmonious England camp (anyone hear the cr*p spouted on 5Live last night?) and apparently some players throwing their dummies around because their bosom-buddies were denied a place in the squad. Even some of the NRL hacks down-under are getting in on the act. I'd like to know what he's done to P off so many people. That green-eyed envy monster is certainly busy. SB is head & shoulders above many even in Oz & Kiwi League and 10 times the athlete of any of the Union ponces we have over here.



Welcome back from the dark side, Sam.

This is the main thing, isn't it? All this fuss ... and yet do we really care?



I know I don't.



I'm just glad he's back where he belongs. Hopefully his bad experience will put others off making the same stupid mistake. It might also make Union think twice about chucking Monopoly money at top athletes in a completely different sport.

Alledgely it was Lancaster who contacted Burgess first back in the summer of 2013. England were meant to part finance the move but other Premiership teams would've kicked off if the national team helped one of the Premiership rivals acquire a big name signing. Having sounded out Bath from the start, the Bath club were willing to take the ALL the financial risk, thus why they didn't have to follow England's wishes of continuing to pick him at centre.



Bath are upset because they bore all the financial burden, however they should've realised it was England who talked him into joining RU, not them. Thus why I agree with the earlier comment, I don't think any Premiership club will be rushing to sign an RL star for England's benefit anytime soon.

My personal belief is that SB *would* have been a Union star, and not in a million years - Just 2.



The problem for me was that it seems to have been England RU that really wanted him and Bath were just the recipient.



However, if he had come over at the end of our 2013 season, he would have had a full 2 years to learn, grow and be accepted in RU, in whichever position England wanted him to play, before being picked for the national team. I could even have understood if he had been given a run-out against Uruguay.



As it was, he was given less than 1 year, played in a different position to where England wanted him (IMO, England should have cahnged their thinking. Bath saw him every day in training) and was then shoe-horned in to England squad as a late addition despite him not being ready for it, didn't do too much wrong in the games that he played (just wasn't the instant game-changer that their fans wanted), then took ALL of the blame for the mistakes made right from the outset because he was/is an easy target.



I'm glad he's back in RL, as RU have shown me (yet again) that they could organise the proverbial in a brewery.

You were making statements. That's the danger, not knowing the difference.

I don't mind being quoted but not out of context. I was far from being the only one who said it.



The flank forward idea is a red herring. He was always going to be an inside centre. The fact is Bath pretty soon realised he couldn't play there. He also found that he wasn't involved enough. So he ended up at flanker by default. Lancasters big mistake was sticking to his plan and ignoring the evidence of Sam's early games for Bath.

Well we all might as well pack in posting altogether