- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Even with all of the speculation that surrounded Sam Burgess since England were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup, I was still surprised when he quit Bath with immediate effect to return to the NRL’s South Sydney Rabbitohs.
I was bang in the middle of writing an article about why both Burgess and Jarryd Hayne should fight to overcome the difficulties they were currently having in their new careers – Hayne having been ‘waived’ at the weekend by the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL – and must admit that I was disappointed with the news that Burgess had quit.
Not because it ruined my article, but because I thought it was the easy option for him to jump ship and return to his home from home in Sydney.
I tweeted, “Must be honest, I feel slightly disappointed that Burgess has taken the ‘easy’ option and quit RU. Would like to hear his reasons.”
A friend of mine tweeted back saying, “Easy option or sensible option Andy? If I was him my mind would’ve been made up after the Wales World Cup game.”
There is no doubt that Burgess was unduly vilified by the rugby union press and some former players – who should take a long, hard look at themselves – and was made the scapegoat for England’s failure to get out of the ‘group of death’.
The vast majority of fans, both league and union, could see that the failings of the team could not purely be put at one man’s door – whether that was Burgess, coach Stuart Lancaster, or anyone else.
However, Burgess was not helped by the England coach or his coaching team.
Lancaster and his assistant Andy Farrell, a former dual-code international himself, clearly believed from the outset of Burgess’ rugby union career that he should play in the centres rather than on the side of the scrum, where he had been playing the majority of his rugby for Bath.
This seeming intransigence means that Burgess had to learn the complexities of two different positions and took the World Cup spot of Luther Burrell – the incumbent Test centre who had played in all of England’s Six Nations matches earlier in the year – adding to the intensity of the pressure already on him.
I am sure Sam knew that the glare of publicity would mainly be aimed in his direction and was prepared accordingly.
As the new kid on the block, who had departed the rival code with near mythical status and succeeded in making the massive jump to the international scene, the pressure for him to succeed was immense, and the huge press corps that was following the Rugby World Cup were waiting for any sign of failure.
Without a doubt that failure did not come from Burgess. He played a cameo role in the opening victory over Fiji and the defeat against Australia, and was not selected for the dead rubber against Uruguay – a strange decision in itself, although numerous other star players were also not selected.
It was the Wales group game that really made people sit up and take notice of how poor England were, and Burgess was in the full glare as he started at centre in place of the injured Jonathan Joseph.
Big Sam performed well enough.
A lot of ‘experts’ said that he contained British Lions centre Jamie Roberts well, and England were leading by seven points when he was replaced by George Ford late on.
Owen Farrell was moved out wide to replace Burgess in the centres, with Ford taking over at flyhalf – England imploded and lost the game.
That made the following week’s encounter with Australia a must-win game – Burgess was back on the bench, as Joseph was now fit, and England lost by 20 points and were out of the World Cup – the first host nation not to get out of the group stages.
The answer to all of this? Blame Burgess.
No other player – perhaps apart from captain Chris Robshaw – had their role questioned or scrutinised like Sam.
Throughout it all, he retained his dignity and integrity and has not spoken to the press.
The first sign that there was a problem was when Bath gave Burgess an unplanned 10-day break, which was explained as him “not feeling right”. He then turned up to watch the England rugby league squad’s friendly against France, sitting next to coach Steve McNamara, the man who gave Burgess his Super League debut for the Bradford Bulls back in 2006.
There is no doubt that Burgess has put in a huge amount of work to get himself anywhere near the standard that he needed to be to warrant his position in the England World Cup squad – even though it was clear that the RFU and Lancaster desperately wanted him to make the transition quickly, it was down to the man himself to make sure he was performing at a high enough standard.
Having done that, and run the gauntlet of the rugby union press over the last few weeks with a great amount of dignity, he was likely formulating his decision before the start of the World Cup.
It has been reported that Burgess and South Sydney coach Michael McGuire were texting each other throughout the brilliant NRL grand final between North Queensland Cowboys and Brisbane Broncos at the end of September.
There was never any doubt that if Burgess sent out the signals that he was unhappy in rugby union then Russell Crowe, the Rabbitohs’ co-owner, would be beating on the door of the Bath owner Bruce Craig to finalise a deal.
This was denied as late as Tuesday by both Craig and his team’s coach, Mike Ford, but clearly they were trying to deflect attention from what was really going on.
Burgess was only going one way, and that was back to Sydney and his mother, brothers and soon to be in-laws – plus his extended family at the Rabbitohs.
He will be welcomed home as a returning hero – the option was always there and it was an easy decision for him to make.
Burgess has cited missing his family as the main reason for his decision. It is clear he is very close to his brothers and his mother, who all live in Sydney, but surely he must have known this before he signed his three-year contract with Bath.
Would he have made the same decision if England had won the World Cup, or at least performed admirably and the press had given him glowing reports?
Although Bath received a significant transfer fee, Burgess owed it to the club to see out his contract, or at least play until the end of this season. He has left a hole in their squad, although I am sure they will be quick to fill it now that a large chunk of their salary cap is available.
For Sam’s long-term future I guess he has made a sensible decision.
He may feel that he would not have become an international forward in rugby union within the next two years – even though his build and skill set are suited perfectly to the modern-day flanker position – and that there is no point in trying if he is not going to attain success at the highest level.
I always thought that by the 2019 rugby union World Cup in Japan he would be safely back playing rugby league anyway.
It is sensible because he is going back to a game that he was born to play – Burgess was and always will be a rugby league player. He is the type of player who needs to be involved from Minute 1 to Minute 80, who makes 40 to 50 tackles and hits the ball up 20 times a match – he is a warrior.
It is sensible because he is back with his family. He is getting married in Sydney in December and his fiancee’s family are in Australia.
It is sensible because he will be the highest paid player in rugby league, with the Rabbitohs reportedly paying him $1.5 million per season over his three-year deal.
However, I still can’t help but feel that Burgess has let a lot of people down.
Undoubtedly Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell’s positions will come under even greater scrutiny, as they pushed for his inclusion in the England squad and expected him to be a part of their long-term plans. I wonder how Luther Burrell feels after losing his World Cup position to a temporary interloper.
There is no doubt Burgess was a success in rugby union – you do not earn international recognition on name alone – but he should have seen his contract out and shown his critics just how good he is.
It is great for rugby league that we have our biggest name back, and I can’t wait to see him playing for England in next year’s Four Nations in the UK.
Welcome back Sam.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.