People are going on all about how RL in general, the England national side and Souths will be the losers in all this.

Wrong.


The only loser in all this will be Sam Burgess himself.


I actually feel sorry for the poor bloke. Sam Burgess is clearly not the sharpest tool in the box - let's make no mistake about it. Sam was just a reasonable footy player from somewhere in the north of England... probably a regular every day Yorkshire bloke.

Russell Crowe built him up to be this phenomenal RL player from England who was going to take the NRL by storm. He has exploited the whole family in order to draw attention to his club. You cant open a paper in Australia or turn on the telly without hearing about what Sammy or one of the other 'Burgii' has been up to. The media has been saturated with stories about them and their lives.

Yet when you peel away the facade the only thing that is really obvious is Sam is still the same reasonably good footy player from the north of England....but sadly he has started to believe his own hype...and when that happens you either have to be incredibly good at your craft or incredibly smart...sadly for Sam he is neither.

He seems to consider himself a 'media first, footy second' type of bloke....and that hasn't gone down well with some of his high profile team mates... including one extremely high profile player that made it very clear to Maguire that this nonsense cant go on.

According to various reports Sam copped a fine for missing training and spat his dummy out big time. Sam thinks he has grown bigger than arguably the biggest footy club name in Australia...and that is never going to happen.

So sadly it seems poor old Sam has backed himself into a corner. He has lost the support of many of the inner sanctum of the dressing room for his style of play that keeps getting him suspended, many of the same group are sick to death of the whole 'Burgii' thing and a lot of Souths fans now think that it would be best if he leaves.


So poor old Sam (the man who believes his own hype) is told that he is a shoe in for the England RU team...and despite never having played the game...takes the bait hook line and sinker and tells Maguire he wants out to try and be the next Sonny Bill or Izzy Folau... which is never going to happen.


The only loser in all of this will be Sam Burgess. Russell Crowe... you should hang your head in shame.

Kiwi Shane...

I must have been watching a different game when I tuned in for the semi against NZ. One of the most complete performances by a forward I've ever seen. All those NRL games I watched last year I must have missed the reasonable northerner. Maybe his performances were so average I never noticed him.

Get a grip mate.

Good game against us in the semi. But one or 2 good games doesnt make a reasonably good player some kind of superman.

How many bums on seats would burgess bring to Salford? Or slater or money bill for that matter?

Pillock

Burgess out played Money Bill in RLWC 2013 Semi and he would probably be a more effective inside centre at RU than what England have currently got with Twelvetrees.... Whether he becomes World Class as he is now at RL is another question.

Haven't people noticed that Sam Burgess sees himself in some kind of competition with Sonny Bill Williams for the title of Golden Boy of World Rugby (both codes)? Sam Burgess is constantly measuring his status against SBW's. That is why he going to RU. He wants to chase SBW all over the park and smash him into the ground. He can't do that again after this year if he stays in rugby league.

Meanwhile anyone seriously interested in the game of rugby league ought to watch the opening game of the NRL season: Sydney Roosters vs South Sydney Rabbitohs on Thursday March 6th. Watch Burgess try to smash SBW at every opportunity -- in attack and defence. I am going to be interested to see how many times Burgess gets penalised for illegal and perhaps dirty play, and if he gets sent off. SBW is cool, calm and collected. He might even laugh at Burgess and Burgess will get even more angry.

In short, Sam Burgess has a complex about SBW.

Sam Burgess wants to be Sonny Bill... but the reality is he isn't really fit to lace the great mans boots. Sam Burgess could play until he is 100 and he would still never be part of a side that wins a grand final or a rugby world cup.

Trolling standards are slipping around here.

Hmmmmmm. Williams played 4 minutes of the 2011 RUWC final and might as well have played less in last years league final. What a god awful display from the kiwis, as much as the semi final was an absolute classic, let's not get carried away about the kiwi performance. There was only two pieces of incredible skill, and a high degree of luck in NZ's first try, that kept you in the game, let alone won it for you. The reason why New Zealand were so bad in the final is down to the pounding they got from England.

Kiwi Shane, you need to take your head out of your arrogant national sport pages. You threw everything at England, and had it returned in more than equal measure.

As for Sam Burgess, Utube is full of him and George smashing New Zealand forwards all over the pitch. Type in fun fui moi moi if you don't believe me. Google will also bring it up. Now, just to be clear, I'm not saying Sam is better than SBW, I actually believe the latter is more likely to be a successful inside centre, but Sam hits as hard as any forward there has been in the professional game, he runs excellent lines from deep and has exceptional footwork for such a big man.

Oh dear

And I've already addressed that by saying they can't, he's the best forward at Souths and one of the best in the league. To easily replace him you need Souths full pack to be better than him.