Dunno.

If he plays in the World Cup (and I don't think he will), maybe we would be better asking what will be going through his mind when he lines up against Wales at Twickenham in front of 80000 while his England RL counterparts are contemplating not being able to sell out Doncaster's ground for the same fixture.

Or a similar crowd for a meaningful fixture against Australia that he has a credible chance of winning.

He'll be kicking himself.

I'm pretty confident he will have had no such assurances.

Willie Mason was born in NZ but obviously played for Aus. As close as you are going to get.

Where did you read that?

I'm pretty sure that Wiganer Dave Bolton (Balmain) earned a Clive Churchill medal for his MoM performance in the 1969 Grand Final.

He did, but his and many others from before 1986 were awarded the medal retrospectively. Burgess is the first non-Australian to win it properly on the occasion of the game since the Clive Churchill medal was introduced in 1986 for the MOM of the GF. At the time Bolton may have been the MOM but he didn't get a Clive Churchill medal. Of course you'll probably know this, you're just once again deliberately being an ar$e.

Clive Churchill was actually the losing coach the year Dave Bolton was MOM in 1969.

Internet somewhere.

Sam Burgess clearly wasn't the first non-Australian recipient of a Clive Churchill Medal.

Dave Bolton was.

This perpetration of historical inaccuracy is typical of a sport which cares so little for its past as it knee-jerks its way from one catastrophic agenda to another.

If the modern day messengers of Super League prefer to rewrite history, then so be it. Much of the games history was flushed down the toilet in the mid-90's anyhow.

I'd suggest that next on the agenda ought to be the complete erasure of all historical records relating to GB tests and proper international tours. That way, everyone can pretend the game as it currently stands is in a position of rude health to such an extent that it's never been in better shape.

The 2014 vintage is simply the best... better than all the rest, etc.

Sam Burgess was the first to win it.

Bolton got his retrospectively around 2 decades later when it was introduced AFTER Churchill's death in 1985.

Technically Burgass is the first non-Australian to WIN it. Stop being a whinging little b*tch for once and just accept the fact.

Quite.

Last week Sam displayed one of the most courageous sporting efforts from an English sportsman in an age. And who knew about it? The Australian sporting public, for sure, and a few thousand English fans that follow the NRL. But nobody in the mainstream English media. Nobody in the larger sporting public in this country.

If he is a success at Union, and I have no doubt he will be, he will be a national and possible global sporting superstar with a stage that his talents deserve. He will play regular and meaningful internationals in front of massive crowds that will have paid a premium to watch him.

I'm no fan of Union but it's foolish to pretend anybody would yearn for an international rugby league match when they will likely be playing in a union world cup.

As for him coming to Leeds or indeed Super League again, I very much doubt it.

Lets say burgess plays until he is mid to late 30's like Morley and Peacock.quite feasible if he don't become a crock.Then i think the earliest we can expect him back in SL is at the age of about 32/33 and that is when no massive offer is on the table from an NRL club and a Hull FC or a 'resurgent' Bulls are willing to offer way over the odds to top up his pension.

The only incentive that may have kept Sam Burgess in RL would have been a deliberate tweaking of the eligibility rules so that he could play in State of Origin. Former PNG skipper Adrian Lam certainly benefitted from such tweaking in the past.

Those eligibility rules appear to have been tightened somewhat in recent years. Had Burgess not played for GB and England, I'm sure he'd have earned a Kangaroo jersey by now as a starter, prior to being offered the Origin main course, just like Karmichael Hunt and James Tamou were.

International RL is no incentive to anyone with ambition because it's been reduced to a dead duck, end-of-season afterthought.

That is incorrect, but the interest & coverage stemmed mainly from the fact that he is on his way to join Bath RU & the injuries he sustained will prevent him from doing this immediately.

Absolutely and if anyone thinks you're simply trolling they should look for the quotes today from Shane Richardson, Souths CEO who knows a thing or two about international rugby league.

He doesn't even think the NRL will be able to lure him back such is the nature of Union's international profile and such is the pitiful nature of Rugby League's international commitment, especially from the Aussies.

RL is Betamax while RU is VHS. The former being a far superior product to the latter and yet for some inexplicable reason the British public prefer the bulkier, slower more cumbersome product.