cuts both ways, Wales leaked most of it star players in the 80/90s to league, Quinell,Gibbs, Bateman, J davies, to name four, we cant complain when some go the other way for the money as thats exactly what the above did,

My sentiments too. As someone who over the years has been entertained and thrilled by the classy skills of those star recruits from Union such as Lewis Jones, David Watkins and others including the ones you name above I have no problem with players that seek to try the other code. To believe otherwise would not just be hypocritical of me but would have been to disagree with a policy that so enriched our sport.

arguably before his recent multiple concussions which seem to have affected his game somewhat the biggest star in welsh rugby was george North, he left scarlets for Northampton for the money, he is ideal for league as he combines pace and power, he reminds me of John Bevan and i,m positive that 20 years ago or less he would be a wigan/saints/widnes/leeds player by now and said club would be overjoyed with the acquisition, money talks, always has always will

I don't disagree with that, but as an RL fan I'm glad Burgess is back in the game. He is the perfect modern-day RL forward (a few dropped balls aside).

This is a good read www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... -t-it.html

This is a good read www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... -t-it.html

I Hoped sam would succeed at bath and also with England , unfortunately certain journalists and ex players took great pride in deriding his selection. The crowning glory was in last Sunday times by Stephen Jones who stating how technical Union is and Sam was never able to grasp the game.
Presumably you need a first class degree from Oxbridge to play for England. His closing words in the article and I quote,'burgess was absolutely shocking ' what an utter disgraceful statement from a so called reputed journalist.
Jones along with Stuart Barnes has form with constant anti league jibes. Apparently only Jason Robinson and Ashton have made the grade according to them.
One player who springs to mind who they never mention and is successful in crossing over is Stephen Myler. He has won many a game for Northampton with his tactical and goal kicking.

There are narrow minded people riding the coat tails of both codes, some of them write crap for the Times to make their living. Most Union fans recognise the deranged mutterings against SB for what it is, Bull Poop

There is one question though that Burgess might find uncomfortable to answer, what if he hadn't been selected for the WC squad? What if Luther Burrell had gotten the nod. Would Burgess have gone back to Souths?
He has some defence at the moment, a disastrous performance by the hosts, criticism flying in from every angle, a lot of it at his selection. The entire England management will be getting binned with the prospect of a less sympathetic regime coming in, and he is looking at being played at 6 fir Bath while he clearly saw his only future for England at centre.
But if he hadn't been selected in the first place then most of that wouldn't be a factor.

From some of the things in that article you could easily get the impression that he never intended to play Union past the WC (unless say England won it and he became a Union superstar).

Just a thought.

Mike Ford proving that if you spend long enough with pricks (the RFU) you eventually become one.
Hopefully his pathetic actions will mean top RL players won't go anywhere near any club he's involved with and his career dies as quick a death as his credibility and reputation.

No I definitely get that impression. He clearly only went to play for England, not Bath, hence no kind words for them like he has for Lancaster.

Ford has come out of this looking like a lovelorn girl who believed the guy she was seeing really loved her and promised her the world when really he was just using her for sex. Now she realises that, she calls the guy a c*nt.

I have no sympathy with Ford in targeting RL players, but I can understand why he's bitter. He has been made to look an idiot by Burgess, probably on the basis that until almost the very end Burgess didn't tell him to his face that he was determined to leave. As a result Ford made some now daft-sounding comments to the media about how Burgess was going to stay. On top of that Ford has lost someone he saw as a key player in the middle of the season. Burgess' leaving would probably have a similar effect to when SBW walked out on the Dogs mid season in terms of its impact on the team and morale amongst the players.

Whilst some of the anti-Burgess bile is OTT, its quite clear that Sam saw the RUWC as his objective, and becoming a star on a big stage. He had no appetite for sticking around in RU once he realised he was likely to be stuck playing club rugby for a couple of years at least. Whilst that message (and the anti-Burgess bile) may help other RL players stay with RL, IMO Burgess doesn't come out of this squeaky clean by any means.

I tend to agree with DHM - had Burgess not been picked for England I think we could have seen him return far earlier.

Quote: Him "Mike Ford proving that if you spend long enough with pricks (the RFU) you eventually become one. Hopefully his pathetic actions will mean top RL players won't go anywhere near any club he's involved with and his career dies as quick a death as his credibility and reputation.'" His Lad's also had a dig at him too www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... mates.html

Quote: Him "Mike Ford proving that if you spend long enough with pricks (the RFU) you eventually become one. Hopefully his pathetic actions will mean top RL players won't go anywhere near any club he's involved with and his career dies as quick a death as his credibility and reputation.'" His Lad's also had a dig at him too www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... mates.html