If he wants to play for the Lions in New Zealand, he's got what's left of this season and all of next to learn to play in the back row, get good enough at it to get selected for England, and then surpass the likes of Warburton, Tipuric, Faletau, Heaslip, O'Brien, Croft, Armitage, Denton et al to get himself into the top seven or eight back rowers in Britain.

Massive ask, and the kind of challenge he would probably thrive on, but I honestly can't see him being successful at it.

Might be more believable if he just said he's staying rather than he's extending his contract. With 2 and a half years left on his current I doubt any of the parties involved are in a rush to extend it until a better idea of whether he'd make it as a back rower becomes clearer.

And Bath have just tried to sign Faletau but the Wales coach wouldn't allow it. So is that attempting a big name signing in the back row because Burgess is leaving?

Faletau's a specialist number eight. If the idea is to play Burgess at 6 then it would be in place of Francois Louw, who I think might be out of contract at the end of this season?

And I should give a f*** because?

Blimey. If Sam Burgess was a "failure" for getting into an England squad for a World Cup in a sport he hadn't even played twelve months previous, there are a lot of failed Union players clogging up the Premiership and Pro 12.

BBC radio saying they expect a big announcement tonight / next few days. Even Matt Dawson advises Sam to go back to RL and blames the deluded England coaches for the fiasco. In fact Dawson summed it up fairly and well.

Breaking News. Word on the street is Sam having a time out from Bath..... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/34662659

Breaking News. Word on the street is Sam having a time out from Bath..... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/34662659

Yes he will be seen as a failure because everyone who watches the sport will realise that his inclusion was speculative at best and that he took the place of better rugby union players. And yes there are better union players who will never play for their country. Given time Burgess could acclimatise but what would be the point? He should do what he does best rather than ending up a journeyman in another sport.

You should do so because it gives the impression that our most talented player cannot cut it. That influences how the whole game is perceived. Just look at how we on this board laugh at union players who could never make it in league.

word is Bath have been pulled by HQ on salary cap failure in particular the arrangement and method of payment to a particularly high profile signing

the legal eagles at Bath have responded they will go to litigation and are comfident that eventually they would win the argument

It'd be massive for England to get him back. We're short in the back row, especially in size terms and he'd solve that issue straight away.

Fingers crossed.

BBC were suggesting he was going to Souths and there would be an arrangement that Souths would not pay the transfer fee (implying NRL 2 would?). That said Sam given a few days to think over his future. As Dawson said if he needs to think about it his heart can't really be in it. If choice (a) is going back to superstar status or (b) getting scrutinised and criticised in a sport you are not familiar with it's a no brainier (roughly what Dawson said). Have to agree.

Being a failure in RU minds would actually benefit RL in terms of future signings. Players will see the treatment Burgess has had and may think twice, and hopefully RU clubs will not want to get their fingers burnt in the same way again.

If he could be brought back and straight into the England team against NZ it would be massive news for RL and would probably add to attendances. If anything that could be a major plus for a sport which struggles to get any sort of national coverage.

I still think he'll bite his nose off to spite his face and stay in RU and be a club standard forward. Maybe even good enough to play for England. But better than the best in the world against players who've played that game their whole lives? Cobblers. Just as it would be laughable to assume that many RU forwards would be world beaters in RL. Good players after a time certainly but better than the best? No chance.

Aside from fitness issues, I would be very surprised if England would be allowed to play someone who wasn't in the pre-announced test squad.