Sam Burgess - returning to Australia - updated

[watsonjm]

With the kind of negotiations he had to get him here, do you really think he just came to play club rugby?

No, but i also dont think it was written into his contract that he expected to be in the 2015 RWC team either. This is all assuming he had a contract with the RFU which im not sure he actually did.

[JackFlashJonny]

The English rugby union joke continues.....You couldn't really imagine it would ever be as bad as it has been...

Good luck Sam go back to a sport you are a king at and live the dream...Will be interesting who Bath sign to replace him..

[PAW]

Does this mean they will be under the salary cap this year then?

[DCATsOLDMAN]

And the moral of the story - cross code transfers very rarely work, as we found in 2002 with Gareth Raynor!

[jonlin]

Surely this now makes the position of all the coaches and management at the RFU untenable. These people are supposed to be knowledgeable about the game we love, it appears they are totally inept. Burgess has shown he does not have the skill set to play union, this is something the coaches should have known from the onset.
They have all got to go, we have all been let down big time with the home world cup.

[watsonjm]

Watsonjm, his was not just a straight club transfer, it was a combined contract for him to fulfill a purpose and it clearly failed!

Taken from the BBC

"Having bought out Burgess's contract with the Rabbitohs without any financial help from the Rugby Football Union (Premiership rivals balked at the idea of the RFU helping to bolster Bath's squad), Bath were entitled to play Burgess where they saw fit. And, actually, Burgess was doing just fine in the back-row."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/34710721

[watsonjm]

Surely this now makes the position of all the coaches and management at the RFU untenable. These people are supposed to be knowledgeable about the game we love, it appears they are totally inept. Burgess has shown he does not have the skill set to play union, this is something the coaches should have known from the onset.
They have all got to go, we have all been let down big time with the home world cup.

Im sorry but you cant say he doesnt have the skill to play union after barely a season playing it.

Given time he could have been brilliant. Sonny Bill Williams was playing union for 28 months (Taken from BBC) before being selected for NZ. Given the same time im sure Burgess would have been good enough to be in the mix....... though at 6 not 12.

Regarding the coaches, they should all be sacked

[vin rouge]

Carl Fearns on Twitter finds it quite amusing, as does Ryan Walkinshaw, who has really put the boot into Bath this week.

Being pointed out that Burrel, eastmond et al should have our sympathies, in my view it looks like he came in to take tyhe plaudits and take part in a home world cup- didnt work out for himso rather than stick around, persevere and see if he can succeed (which is what he taled about when he came) he's taken the easy route out.

bath I'll bet have probably ended up making a profit on him.

[JackFlashJonny]

Surely this now makes the position of all the coaches and management at the RFU untenable. These people are supposed to be knowledgeable about the game we love, it appears they are totally inept. Burgess has shown he does not have the skill set to play union, this is something the coaches should have known from the onset.
They have all got to go, we have all been let down big time with the home world cup.

Im sorry but you cant say he doesnt have the skill to play union after barely a season playing it.

Given time he could have been brilliant. Sonny Bill Williams was playing union for 28 months (Taken from BBC) before being selected for NZ. Given the same time im sure Burgess would have been good enough to be in the mix....... though at 6 not 12.

Regarding the coaches, they should all be sacked

I agree Jim I was a fan of Toulon in the Wilkinson days and watched a lot of them play..SBW was nothing but potential then and had a lot of game time before he went and made it big in NZ..Burgess could of done the same but as the likes of Benji Marshall and Sam have shown trying to do it in your own country under the spotlight of home media is just too much..if SBW hadn't gone to France he probably wouldn't of stuck it out either..good luck to Burgess lets just get rid of everyone involved in the sorry saga of this and the RWC and look forward

[LE18]

I cannot argue against what you have added here but I sincerely believe he knew what he was doing coming to Union, he was in a very high profile position in League and was obviously told that he would succead, sorry but I have no simpathy for him.

[vin rouge]

he probably would have succeeded if he'd have stuck it out.

[watsonjm]

I cannot argue against what you have added here but I sincerely believe he knew what he was doing coming to Union, he was in a very high profile position in League and was obviously told that he would succead, sorry but I have no simpathy for him.

Maybe so and fair enough, we'll agree to disagree and, as JackFlash said, move on and forget the whole sorry saga.

[LittleBigG]

What a sorry state of affairs... If this is not the final nail in the coffin to sack the idiots who picked him I don't know what is.

The guy is a tremendous athlete and could well have made it at the highest level, but the world cup was at least 18 months too early.

Nice to see the BBC is peddling the Lancaster line about Manu too.

[Jimmy Skitz]

I cannot argue against what you have added here but I sincerely believe he knew what he was doing coming to Union, he was in a very high profile position in League and was obviously told that he would succead, sorry but I have no simpathy for him.

Maybe so and fair enough, we'll agree to disagree and, as JackFlash said, move on and forget the whole sorry saga.

we can't the 2 that brought him into the squad are currently still in their posts

[watsonjm]

Nice to see the BBC is peddling the Lancaster line about Manu too.

Kicking a man when he's down and all that.