Yeah, well id take what Ford says with a pinch of salt.

The RFU will have ploughed ££££ into the whole Burgess deal so will not want to end up with egg on their face.

On the flipside, Ford has managed to shoe-horn both of his sons into the England setup, a la Farrell, he's a good blagger

In a way if SB does not sign for Leeds, which seems unlikely, then I would rather prefer he stays in RU and proves his critics wrong. He has a good relationship with Ford who IMO is a good coach and manager. If he stays and makes a success then overall this will be better for the reputation of League.

Not much shoe-horning needs to be done with George Ford. He should be England's 10 for years. Terrific player, got the impudence and confidence that would have made a decent RL half-back out of him.

Why anyone would want the best British RL player to be in another sport is crazy to me.

If he did stay and was a success then it would be quickly forgotten he was ever a RL player just like what happened with Jason Robinson.

I think he will stay at bath and prove to be a decent RU player

I think so too. He'd be associated with quitting for evermore in England if he leaves. I reckon his pride will see it through and he'll eventually break into the England team as a 6 and have a good Six Nations then go back to Souths.

If he stays in RU long enough to make it into the England Squad as a 6 surely he'd stop for the next world cup at which point would Souths want him back?

Mike Ford confirmed on radio 4 this morning that Sam will be staying with Bath and targeting to play for England at 6 next year.

Let's be right here, he's got three options in sl, nrl and ru.

Sl is a distant third in reality. He may fancy coming back to sl in 5 years or so post 30 depending on circumstances but no way is that his first choice now, even if it was just an overnighter on the way to Sydney.

It's anyone's guess out of nrl and ru really. Both have their obvious merits. One thing is for certain, what ever SB wants he will get. Contracts and transfer fees can all be sorted if it's what a player really wants.

All this rubbish about moley says and Ford says is irrelevant. Next week we will all know.

Sam's future is now the subject of a BBC Sport articlehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/34665009rl

It's Bath or Souths, apparently

Yet Sam has stayed silent throughout. If Ford's version of events were true I'm sure Burgess would've come out and announced his intentions to stay at Bath, but he hasn't and he rolled up to an England RL match when Bath were playing.

Last week it was that they were resting him for last weekend. Now it's we're resting him for two weekends and that was always the plan. Which would make playing him the first week after England's WC exit a bit of a strange thing to do. Returns from the WC, play one game, then rest the next 2.....ermmm not buying it. Now it's changed to he came back but wasn't right so they decided to give him a break.

just posted similar on VT. Ford will trot out his club stance all day long, and rightly so, its still fact until Sam decides what he wants.Only way i believe he is staying in Union now is a factual statement from him saying he is staying otherwise it all still points to him wanting out.

As I said we will know by early next week as SB is due back at Bath on Monday.

Why should Sam not stay silent. He was given 2 weeks off to make a decision on his future. The longer it has gone on the more chance that he will stay with Union at Bath IMO.

If you listen to what Mike Ford said today he has explained that SB was given two weeks off to think over his future as he "didn't quite feel right" after returning from England duty. He took a part of this break in Spain and also took in watching his brother play for RL for England. During this time he was also considering offers from his former club but has kept in touch with Ford who is sure he will be back at Bath on Monday.

We will know soon enough Sam's decision... you can buy it then!

If Sam wants to spend the next two years minimum clearing rucks and scrummaging then good luck to the lad.

I just can't see him being happy doing that... I really can't. If he does then what a travesty it ill be..