This'll be the George Ford who left Leicester to join Bath just so he could be with his Dad, completely missing the point about family loyalty being stronger than club loyalty then?

Let's not forget Mike ford walked out on League to go get a better pay day in Union....

I don't see a problem with that. I don't think he made a secret out of wanting to play on the big stage which for a player of his pedigree is a reasonable ambition. This also shows that he didn't make the move for just the money. I also think it shows he knew and understood his best and quickest route to the England team was at 12 so he was not too happy to be switched to 6 by Ford as this greatly slowed down his experience and education as a centre. This would appear to have soured his relationship with Ford.

I do not think he only went for the RUWC and having made the squad he would have expected a long Union international career as he would only improve as he became more experienced. After the team played so badly his selection became the focal point of blame from a certain predictable group of anti League hacks and envious former players. So realising his planned International Union career had been unfairly thwarted in the short/medium term brought an about turn from Sam.

Although he fairly can be accused of letting down his club teammates by leaving at short notice I think he had good reasons to do so and he made the right decision for his own career

England 25 Wales 18 when Sam Burgess replaced by yes you've guessed it..George Ford. Wales win by 3..who gets the blame Sam Burgess..say no more!!

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This is the highest rated comment from the article you posted.Couldn't agree more.

Quite correct,Brown the England fullback is moaning in today's press that he has lost trust with the England squad.
That would be the brown that was nowere to be seen when Wales crosskicked to score the try that ultimately beat England.
The main reason Lancaster was apointed was to instill team spirit and discipline after the World Cup in New Zealand.
If you recall some of the off field activities involved dwarf throwing and jumping from ferry boats to swim to shore.
All jolly good fun,you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at this present shambles.

Lancaster gone according to Sky Sports

yep.All this Sam Burgess hoo ha is deflecting a lot of the finger pointing that should be happening at many others who badly underperformed in that England side.

Lancaster Goner!?

I'll get ma coat...

Did you even read what Brown is complaining about? He's unhappy that negative stories from within the camp are being leaked to the press, obviously by players. I can see why he'd be upset. When they should be pulling together as a collective squad they are bitching in secret to hacks.

As one of, if not "the" best player in the England squad for the last 2-3 seasons and in no way responsible for the try you talk about I think he has the right to say what he's said.

Says much for the "team spirit" Lancaster managed to create. Lancaster was brought in to clean up the Engand Brand for packaging and selling. Coaches should be appointed to create a winning team. England have won sweet FA since Lancaster took over.

Agree. Browns complaint is a justified one IMO and he doesn't appear to be having a go at Burgess. In fact he seems to quite like RL judging by his comments in the past and his Twitter account.

Ford Jr's clearly spat the dummy. I'd like him to name the players who would "die" for Bath - or any other club. Hyperbole to the max. The term hell hath no fury... springs to mind. Sounds like he feels personally very aggrieved, which I do understand TBH - in a team sport a player jumping ship ASAP and basically saying he never wanted to play for them is pretty hard to take. Nonetheless, very poor use of words around Remembrance Day.

The problem for the euro teams is, imo, that a great deal of their international rugby is played in the 6 nations. Crowds are massive but a huge proportion seem to go for the occasion and probably always have done. Win or lose, most enjoy their day. Generally the press too are fairly sanguine. Come world cup time and all that changes and the step up is massive. Combine that with squads that are fairly untested and are - let's face it - not all that good and the inevitable result comes as something as a nasty shock.

As for Lancaster, he failed on more than one level. But despite winning zilch, I think I'm right in saying that he won a higher proportion of 6 nations games than any of his immediate predecessors - Woodward, Ashton, Robinson and Johnson. Of those, I think only Woodward's percentage of all games, i.e. including southern hemisphere teams, won was better.

Lancaster's team is like the Rhinos of the early noughties, up there competing with the best of Europe, but can't quite get over the line. It will need a coach that can go the extra yard to get them over the line and they could dominate European rugby for years to come.

I did read the article thank you very much, hence me commenting on it.
Brown complains about players leaking to the press, his reaction is to go to the press thus adding fuel to the fire..
He was as you quite rightly comment one of the stand out players coming into the World Cup. This in spite of receiving concussion on several occasions.
Unfortunately he had a shocker of a tournament, he knocked at various times at crucial stages of vital games. Something I had not seen him do previously.
You claim he was not responsible for the try in the Wales game. If you recall the ball was passed along the Wales back line. It was then cross kicked into the space behind the England back line. Brown was nowhere to be seen, who do you think should have been sweeping up at the back. Maybe the England prop forwards ?.
Incidentally quite a few people wanted Alex Goode the Saracens full back to play in the World Cup. This due to Browns admirable but well intentioned habit of playing up around the ruck and maul area.
England lose turnover ball and brown is out of position, but we have already covered that haven't we.