So there you have it. After one year, five England caps and seventeen appearances for Bath, Sam Burgess is returning to rugby league. It is a depressing end to a sorry saga that has been mismanaged from start to finish.
None of the protagonists in this tragedy emerge with credit – but let’s start with the man himself, because ultimately he is most responsible for his own sorry narrative.
Burgess arrived to so much fanfare at the Rec last season that he was always going to be on the back foot from the word go. He was hailed as the saviour by rugby union fans who had seen little of him in league – and that level of expectation was always going to be difficult to live up to.
Initially picked as a centre by Bath, he showed glimpses of what he offered without ever really inciting superlatives. The club shrewdly decided to move him to the back-row, where he could tear about the park in a freer role while still learning the ropes. After a few man-of-the-match performances, things were looking up. He seemed a legit option for England at the World Cup – as a flanker.
His inevitable inclusion in the wider training squad came soon after. Fine, we thought – he could certainly be an asset and to be in that environment, with the best players in the country, can only help.
Then it was announced by Lancaster and his coaches that Burgess would only be considered as a centre, not a back-row – a decision that was met with a giant ‘you what?’ from most onlookers. Burgess had played his best rugby at flanker and yet he would only be considered at centre? What a stubborn, narrow point of view to take.
As it turns out, he was far from England’s worst player in a desperately depressing World Cup campaign. But he didn’t set the world alight either, and the decision to play him in the centre was utterly insane. Whoever made that call – and the buck surely has to stop with Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell – now looks very, very stupid.
The truth is, he was never ready to be included in this World Cup. But England and the RFU, blinded by their own joy and patting themselves on the back for bringing over such a big name, thrust him in at the deep end with absolutely no evidence that it would be a success.
Burgess set himself the target of playing in the World Cup when he came over here, and it’s very hard not to look at the whole saga with a degree of cynicism now. Was he promised by the RFU that, if he switched code, he would be guaranteed a place at the World Cup? We’ll never know, but it’s definitely not out of the question.
You can understand it from his point of view. He is adored in rugby league; a poster boy in Australia where all of his family are still based. Why wouldn’t he want to return to that, when all he has faced in union is scepticism?
We’ll never know how good he could have been in this code – and that is one of the saddest things. He has all the tools to excel, but instead of being given time to learn the ropes properly – as Sonny Bill Williams did for two years at Toulon before being picked for the All Blacks – he was thrust into the limelight far too soon.
Of course, it is still a shame that Burgess has not had the desire, or the fight, to want to stick around in union and prove the doubters wrong. I’ve no doubt that he would have done so eventually; instead he leaves with his reputation tarnished and supporters jaded.
One final thing – spare a thought for poor Luther Burrell right now. Excluded from the World Cup squad despite playing every minute of England’s most successful Six Nations campaign for some time, only to now see the bloke that was picked ahead of him bugger off back Down Under to a different sport.
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— Luther Burrell (@lutherburrell) October 29, 2015
Burgess arrived with great anticipation surrounding him. A year later, it’s hard to imagine how his time in union could have gone any worse.
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
Not a surprise. I think you’re right that there was some sort of verbal “come over Sam and you can play in the World Cup” chat – probably not a promise, but dangled and encouraged very strongly. I reckon if they had left him out of the WC they may have avoided all of this as he’d now be working on learning his craft ready for 2019. Instead they gave him a go in a dysfunctional setup while he suffered with media praise then pillory.
No he wasn’t Eng’s worst player but that was more down to what was around him – despite not qualifying I don’t think I could point at any England player who was genuinely awful? They were all pretty much mediocre to good really? Perhaps the problem was that a guy with only 6 caps was able to hold his own with them so it showed up their lack of quality?
Lancaster has to go for this and so many reasons. Now add another one – I wouldn’t want to be Lancaster calling Burrel back in. I also wouldn’t want to be Burrel either i.e. “the man who’s back in now Sam has gone to league”. A fresh start for England gives Burrel, who as royally shafted, the chance to start with a clean sheet.
Schadenfreude alert – I do laugh at what England often do with their most talented players. Simpson-Daniel, Care, Wade, Ford and Burrel all mucked about more than a clingy ex. While lumpen plodders like Barrit have the earth moved to accommodate them. Hilarious (yes, tongue is in cheek here…).
PS. What the hell is going on down at Bath? Ford is still saying he’s expecting Burgess to play on Sat….
“What the hell is going on down at Bath? Ford is still saying he’s expecting Burgess to play on Sat…”
Probably just sending a message to his agents that buying out his contract will not be cheap!
“You can understand it from his point of view. He is adored in rugby league; a poster boy in Australia where all of his family are still based. Why wouldn’t he want to return to that, when all he has faced in union is scepticism?”
It’s the easy option Jamie. What else does he have to achieve there? So much for his iron will and integrity. Sure he got some undeserved bad press, but really is that his reason?
This whole situation stinks. SL in a matter of months has destroyed the one “achievement” he had – the culture and trust of his players. Shameful
Ignoring Stuart Lancaster and England and even Bath for a second is it just me who is thinking that Burgess himself is the pillock here.
Looks to me that poor baby Burgess didn’t win the world cup like he assumed he would so he’s taking his ball, screwing the club he made a three year promise to (as that is what a contract is), and going home.
A year is not long enough to even discover the right position for him let alone get properly good at it.
My own opinion (or prejudice perhaps) is that league players perhaps think “I can do that Union thing, p**seasy” and then it turns out to not be so. I genuinely think he’s a bit surprised (despite all the talk of knuckling down, learning, etc.) that it’s not been plain sailing (obviously getting picked was, but I mean more being at the top of the game as he was in league) and it turns out this union actually has requirements and skills that are not picked up being a world beating prop in league. I’m basing this on what *loads* of league fans bleat on forums – that he’s too good for the easier fat man’s game, he’s too fit, too skillful, etc.
In short it’s not as much fun as he hoped it would be and I bet he doesn’t think it will get better, it’ll just get less confusing.
I wouldn’t turn around to watch league – for me it is so different that it is as interesting to me as netball, and I love rugby. To me they’re very, very different sports and I reckon he was surprised by how much. Where’s the fun for him in being a six in the British winter mud when he’s used to running around, dry humping the ground and counting tackles in the Aussie sun?
There’s no doubt that a number of people in union are all too happy to see him fail but I always thought he’d have the will and desire to stick 2 fingers up at them and prove himself
I don’t doubt that he would have done either given his progress in just 20 games for Bath
I think its sad and pathetic that he’s slinking back to league, ignoring a 3 year contract and leaving Bath in the lurch
What an almighty balls up. And one that SL et al have a lot of responsibility for. This really should be the last straw for their tenure as coaches
I didn’t mean to sound like I’m happy he’s failed – more that I’m annoyed that RL is viewed as a game that gives you great tools to replace what most people have been learning since before they were teenagers in Union. I don’t understand where this comes from. The successes are rare and people like SBW are just freaks.
You, and others, make a good point though. Where is the fight/grit I was told to expect from “Slammin Sam”?
Didn’t mean to suggest it was you who was happy Brighty. But there’s no doubt that a number of click bait type journos and washed up ex players keen for a media soundbite have had the knives out for Burgess from the start
I honestly believe that Burgess could have been a freak like SBW. Just 20 games in Union and he was picked out of position in a game Vs 2 very experienced, v good centres and still managed to hold his head up and perform well if not brilliantly. Whatever you think of him, that was quite something. Think what he could have been like with 2 or 3 years under his belt.
Of course I blame the media and England management but until this news I still believed he’d prove them all fools in the end because he wasn’t the type of bloke to give up a challenge like this. Even the flighty SBW put in two years at Toulon
More fool me. ‘Slammin’ Sam my arse. Turned tail and ran at the first set back. If this is his attitude, frankly league can have him and good riddance. I hope he enjoys the glory of being a big fish in a tiny, tiny pool.
I hope this puts the final nail in the England management coffin and then at least one good thing would have come from this utter debacle
I don’t mind watching a bit of league, but you’re spot on here Brighty. This is a guy who played a league final with a broken cheekbone!! And yet one setback and some bad press and he’s flying back to the other side of the world? I think there may be more to it than we know?!
Usually the only people successful in the transition either play in a position where the duties are much the same in both League or Union (I’m thinking wing here really and players like Chris Ashton). SBW has mainly been successful because of the players around him, combined with his freakish natural playing ability.
Also loved your comment “Where’s the fun for him in being a six in the British winter mud when he’s used to running around, dry humping the ground and counting tackles in the Aussie sun?” Classic summary!!
“RL is viewed as a game that gives you great tools to replace what most people have been learning since before they were teenagers in Union” – the philosophy of a certain England coach, perchance?
Yep Brighty,
Too right mun.
Think how many League superstars turned into failures as union players?
Andy Farrell, Henry Paul and Burgess. Wendell Sailor…Iestyn Harris (Wales v Argentina 2001????) to name but a few.
It is a totally different game asoyu say scrum, lineout, ruck, maul, tackle area etc etc.
5 plays and kick away the ball for the other side to have 5 goes and kick it back.
Meanwhile this departure has shades of Bath, John Hall and 1998 all over again.
I wonder if the press statement was longer than 2 lines this time?
‘Bath RFC announce a wreck ……..that they and Mr Sam Burgess have parted company with immediate effect. Thanks you and that ends the Press briefing’
Almost as brief as Super Sam’s England career.
At least he didn’t go the morning after the Aussie game???
But like you, I really do enjoy rugby misfortune when it happens to the Germanic Master Race under the k throne of Saxophone-Carlesburg-Gonnaa-Battered-Burgers.
Even more amusing is the fact that the latest ‘great hope of English rugby’ has gone in under 7 days after the curtain came down on RWC 2915. That makes it all the more enjoyable.
Bet my ‘Chippy…..sh+tty….trog-like..tiny little midget’ Schadenfreude inner glow trumps yours.
I am seriously laughing my socks off a the sight of so much rot at the heart of England and the nuclear fallout from THE RFU(coz its OUR game and always will be) Review has not even begun to loom on the horizon yet.
Odds on Scottish Stu still being in post come Jan 2016???
I reiterate that this stinks.
There were plenty of league fans at the time of his signing that said they had heard it on good authority that Sam had no intention of seeing out his contract, and that he’d be back at the Rabbitohs next season. And lo deals are already being put in place. Sam can have a nice break in the off season and be ready for pre season. More than a little convenient eh?
As Jamie says no one emerges from this with any credit including Sam who is going back to £200k higher salary-in effect he’s doubled this in a year.
However the architect of this utter shambles is SL.A 2 year old a year ago could have forecast he would fail
as a12 at rwc level.But Sam is just one detail of the whole sorry mess our world cup has been.He’s history let’s focus on pressurising the rfu to totally restructure and rebuild(any flying pigs?)
Bath have been shafted in this. The only ones who came anywhere close to handling him correctly, and with patience. The RFU let them pay for him to change codes, then took him off them and have now literally driven him back to RL. SB could at least have seen out this season with them – did he have this planned all along, with the RWC just giving him the excuse to bring the timetable forward a bit? Or did he expect Union to be a walk in the park but have a nasty surprise. All in all, it is just a great shame really.
The whole thing is a total and utter mess and everyone comes out of this with no credit at all. Sam Burgess has run away once the going got tough, but after the way he has been pilloried who can blame him. England should have never picked him for this World Cup with less than a years experience of Union, and built him up for 2019. Stuart Lancaster has been made to look very foolish indeed by playing him as a 12 instead of in the back row. Lets hope lessons have been learned from this whole sorry saga.
I think a lot of the criticism of Burgess in this is unfair. This is his job. If anyone on here left a job they enjoyed for one that wasn’t working out as hoped, then chose to go back to their old job nobody would bat an eyelid!
The questions really need to be asked of those who were making his stay in union an unpleasant one, which sounds like it’s everyone but Bath – ironically the people most put out by his switch back to league.
Can’t agree with that Doc. The situation is more like if I left one job, for a job where I was displacing people who’d worked for years to make what I was getting immediately, then made a big statement in the new (and much, much better paid) job about how I knew it was going to be tough, knew I had a lot to learn but I’d knuckle down and do the hard yards … and then I left at the first sign of trouble then I’d expect to have my words thrown back at me with some added sharp ones.
Spot on Brighty
Radio 5 surprisingly had a good phone in about the subject this morning – some good insight from Aussie NRL guys:
– Burgess played, and won MOTM, in a RL World Cup semi (or qtr?) against SBW’s NZ in 2013 which seems to have been when Farrel/SL decided he could be their SBW and Burgess started being courted and being excited about the same
– Eng only ever wanted him as “their SBW”. It never mattered where he played for Bath, he was always going to be an England centre.
– He was always going to make the world cup squad so he could be their SBW
End result – he wasn’t their SBW. Eng management squad, the blame for the disaster is firmly at your door for this blinkered policy with Sam getting some deserved grief for giving up straight away.
Now if you believe conspiracies the NRL guys also say this was no surprise to them – he was always going to return to RL after the WC, it was only Bath that didn’t know that. Not sure if I believe that.
This is what happens when the STUpid lead the blind. There’s no hope, just blind stupidity.
For me the saddest part of the whole sorry saga is how a novice flanker can end up being the best 12 in the final squad of 31.
I’m disappointed he’s not sticking it out as he could be a great 6, but given his experience and being played out of position I don’t think he’s got anything the be ashamed of regarding his personal contribution of the RWC “campaign”.
Couldn’t work out whether that first sentence was regarding Burgess or Barritt; both were blindside flankers masquerading as centres during the WC for England.
Good point, I was referring to the flanker playing at centre, rather than the centre who plays like a flanker.
There was plenty of rumours of this at the beginning of September before the world cup started and the rumours were coming from his family. It makes me wonder if this is more about lifestyle and his Australian girlfriend and being close to his family than anything else. He could have made it in Rugby Union and he isn’t short of confidence and I’m sure would believe that. The English debacle won’t have helped, but I’m not sure this decision is entirely about rugby.
Another RWC and another embarrassing, pitiful display from England both on and off the pitch. 4 years ago we thought that it was a one off and things could only get better. Deja vue all over again. All we need now is for the players feedback to be leaked and a new novice coach to be appointed……..!
Some interesting comments made, but ultimately, surely this has to come down to our age old problem of club v country. Until that is sorted out, no coach is going to succeed to the level expected by most England fans (ie RWC winners – not saying that this is right, just that it is the expectation). I would only expect an experienced coach like Eddie Jones (for example) to take the job if he had greater autonomy. Can’t see the RFU (a) wishing to grant that or (b) being able to grant that given the power of the clubs. So does that leave us with SL (with Farrell as the scapegoat) and the potential for history to repeat itself again in 2019?
Either that or we are going to be heading towards the bust up of the century between the RFU and the clubs. Thank goodness we have Rob Andrew to sort out the mess for us! BTW has anyone heard hide or hair of him recently?
I Sort of hope this was Burgess fooling the RFU all along and they take are forced to take responsibility. I don’t think many wanted this bloke to fail and comments were more about how none of it worked. But once SL had Barritt selected followed by Burgess, a horror show centre partnership where were England going.
I didn’t want him to fail but part of me smiles at the self satisfied know it all R League zealots who look as stupid as Sl and RFU
While none of the events surrounding Burgess have surprised me, I really cant add much to what as already been said by both Jamie and the rest of you.
When the review board do their thing I hope this and the sacking of Farrell snr are near the top of the agenda.
Union needs a little less input from ex League men. I’ll make an exception of Shaun Edwards as he has simply stuck to his role as defence coach for Wales and done a good job at it.
So it now appears that Burgess was on the phone to the Rabbitohs almost immediately after England’s loss to Aus
I am starting to believe the rumours that this was his plan all along…
At the end of the day I can understand why Burgess would choose to go back to Aus and league. he has ended up as a scapegoat for Englands failing at the world cup despite the fact that he out performed half the squad.
However there is still that nagging doubt that this switch back was all pre planned and he is trying to model himself on SBW. If he starts a side career as an amateur boxer next year then I’ll take that as confirmation otherwise i’m guessing we will never know until 2018