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.

How much is "a new challenge" or "the higher international profile" really just sportsman speak for "a huge wad of cash and a more comfortable lifestyle?"

If anything, Sam Burgess's personal profile is going to be lower at Bath than it currently is at Souths. At the moment. he's playing for a team owned by Russell Crowe, based in a major city and playing the national game. In sporting terms, his profile is the equivalent of the likes of Steven Gerrard over here.

Unless and until he makes the England RU team, he's going to be playing for a team in a small town in a minority sport. No higher a profile than if he was at Wigan or Saints for example.

It's not a massive stretch to assume that the major reason he's moving to RU from RL has little to do with the respective merits of either code and more to do with the enormous cheque he can bank as a result.

Yes, I read that earlier today. rlHere's the link for anyone interestedrl.


I wouldn't underestimate our commitment to international RL either. We pay a lot of lip service to it and usually blame the Aussies for its negligence, yet we'd rather play some team called Exiles rather than France. And when the Exiles concept duly turns to excrement because neither the players nor the fans buy into it, we just don't bother at all.

If anyone should be in any doubt about our commitment to international RL since 1996, ask yourself how many tests we've played against France or PNG, or how many times we've played a test series away from home. There's your answer right there.

Rugby League really isn't the national game in Australia. Not now and not ever. You'd struggle to hear anything about the game in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne... YES, even in Melbourne! It's popularity is confined to the eastern seaboard, and even there its attendances are being overshadowed by Aussie Rules and wait for it... increasingly by some A-League Soccer fixtures!

I am sure Sam will become a big star in RU and I do hope he makes it on merit into the England team. It would appear that they tried very hard to keep him in the Sydney so IMO his reasons for moving were to play on the big International stage and not just about cash.

Interesting 'inside story' article about him and his family

rlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/11194589/Sam-Burgess-inside-story-Bath-and-England-to-discover-what-Russell-Crowes-sparkly-eyed-man-is-really-made-of.htmlrl

There is not a 'snowball in hell's' chance of Sam Burgess ever pulling on a Rhinos shirt. It pains me to write this but, the RU and the NRL will see to that. I am, however, bemused by the some people on here who somehow imply that Sam is wrong to make his pounds / dollars where he can. Wouldn't we all do the same?

The quicker we look to putting International RL at the forefront of our sport rather than two domestic competitions the better chance of progression in terms of keeping high class players and interest in our sport