FTFY.

On the upside it does mean he gets to play for England in the 2017 world cup….

Sam training at bath today. Has he even made his mind up?

Lolz @ CFH

You and I know full well that in the valleys there is soccer and there is football.

Well some countries are getting their sevens squads sorted for the Rio Olympics. I saw Habana and Allende (among others) added to the Blitzboks and Sonny-Bill, Liam Messam and Ardie Savaea are in the ABs squad.

Anyone know what GB are doing? I know England getting 4th in the world series qualified a GB side but will that side be English or British? Is it gonna be organised or will it be the usual cluster***k that happens everytime we get a new team sport at the olympics?

slight tangent but I was channel hopping the other night and watched ‘Urban Rugby’ or whatever it was called with Ugo Monye and Marlon Yarde.

A really great idea, moving away from that ‘rugby is for posh kids’ idea (well in England anyway) and to borrow a football term for a moment some of those kids had ‘unbelievable tekkers’. It was also great how they spoke to the kids about behaviour in school, at home etc. and teaching them values.

Really heartwarming

Rabbitohs resign Sam.
Good luck to him.
Good rugby player and good bloke.

On the Beeb now.

Can a revolving door slam?

Excellent news as it will be a very very long time before a League player is rushed into Union and into the England setup again. So my incling that the story may have been a scurrilous one put about by the Aussie press was wrong.

@loum, agree with your sentiments with the one correction that he’s a very good League player and totally unproven in Union.

@El, I’m not daming him for going back to League, that’s the best thing for England (Union). In fact I never criticised him for coming to give a Union a go that’s his right. What’s totally wrong was his selection for England or even Bath first XV

Not sure there’s much hate. Disappointment certainly. He could have been a great rugby player if he’d been given the chance to properly develop. He was railroaded in toothed game far too quickly. Who’s to blame for that?

Well, I suspect that he should shoulder a little bit of the blame himself, but it must be hard to say you’re not really ready!

Lancaster? Perhaps. Farrell? Likely.

It’s a shame to see him go. Whatever the devious machinations that got him there for a year.

Nobody hated SB. Most simply loathed the idiotic way that “Club England” dealt with the whole issue.

If he’d been left to mature at Bath and then picked on merit for England when ready it may have worked.

Being rushed into the RWC when clearly not worth his place and having proven to be incapable as a club centre with Bath having switched him to back row must have given Burgess the impression that English Rugby is totally amatuerish.

No wonder he’s gone back. Careers are short. Good luck to him.

PS
Apparently the buy-out clause on the contract was substantially higher than the transfer fee Bath paid the Rabbitohs in the first place so Bruce Craig has made a few quid back.

What a pile of tripe!

To be fair he is better off in RL. I can’t see the bloke wanting to learn the technicalities of bring in the forwards and he isn’t fast enough for the back line. England management should be embarrassed by the whole affair and deserved to be sacked (unless they were told to pick him of course). If Bath made money on the deal then well done them.

+1 nbt and namastebuzz

I would have liked Burgess to remain in English rugby for the remainder of this season, but some of the vitriol from the press, from too many English rugby union fans and within the rugby union establishment itself has called for a thicker skin than any sportsman need bear.

So he’s back at Souths with Tom and George. And he’ll play in the 2017 Rugby World Cup where England have a very good chance if success.

After 120 years it’s clear nothing has really changed in the English rugby union establishment attitude to the other code….

#blameburgess

He is a world class RL player, one of the best. Don’t let your blinkered snobbery blind you to this fact.

Oh, and Sam didn’t deny Luther Burrell a place in the squad, the selectors did. There is no argument against Burrell being a much better choice.

I don’t think so some how.

Coyote bites! Excellent. 🙂

Anyway,

Agreed. And, I think Farrell may well have been the chief and/or “bossiest” selector in that situation.

you’re being a dick and I’m sure you know that. Go and have a word with yourself.

Now now girls…

Anyway, yes, nice touch to go to jc’s grave with the cup. Sign, surely, that he was a good bloke.

Sorry about that, but he became – along with Robshaw who also is a very good player and thoroughly decent bloke – a talisman of the Lancastrian era. The centres had been an issue for years, and what bigger player or stage could you choose to highlight that – is the problem.

I’ll **** off now. 🙂