Not really. I want to know how my first comment relates to that.

Hasn't he just come back because he's been found out in union and binned by England?

Read the the previous pages if you don't follow union. He said he was missing rugby league and his wife is pregnant with the 1st child so they wanted to be close to family and now he is 27 it was going to be now or never.

Edit**

he could have stayed in union because he was never found out he was seen as a good player.

No he hasn't..in union especially the England camp it's more flavour of the month. There are some incredibly unlucky players not to be getting more England caps. look at Ashton, he's being absolute dog turd for years yet seems to cement his place somehow.
Tomkins got injured at a very crucial point so was never going to get picked was he
I'm not a fan of his and Wigan as a club..well as a Hull fan I'm sur you know the score.. but those talking complete and utter b0llocks about something they have no idea about gets up my nose.

Centres are completely different in union to league and the big athletic RL second rows make good crash ball centres in Union. A classy RL centre/stand off would fill the other RU centre position. Ones an inside centre and ones an outside centre but I'm not sure which is the crash ball one and which is the more 'skilled' one.
Tomkins did well in his few seasons there but he just wasn't busy enough, through no fault of his own. Union is a forwards game.

Seriously, bragging that you know more about rah rah than everyone else is not cool, take a look at yourselves.

He looks a bit chubby faced to me. Who ate all the fly-halves?

That was one of the great cup final trys.

Like I said, he's lost his england place and knows he isn't good enough to get it back so his value in union has dropped and can probably earn more in league now

Lol you think he is earning more in league? He has publicly said he has taken a pay cut to come home. And somebody who has played both games but grew up loving league would know exactly what he would have felt after the win against leeds at the Etihad.


End of the day he was good enough to earn another shot at the England Squad but he has already got to that point and has seen the grass wasn't greener and came back home.

also just because you don't get picked for england (he is injured) doesn't mean his contract at saracens becomes null and void.

On Burgess, my understanding is (could be wrong) that he's been signed to play in the centres. He wants to play in the World Cup next year, and there's little chance he'd be even half proficient at the RU forwards' stock in trade by that time. He won't be leaving Souths until their season is up, which most likely means no pre-season at all in RU - just straight into it.

I just look at his build and the way he plays and can see him having the odd flash moment in both attack and defence, but in the centres his basic lack of speed and mobility would be a problem. He's a completely different style of player to SBW, who would be a great RL centre if he wanted to be, as well as pretty good in RU. Burgess would be an average centre in RL, never mind RU.

Couldn't agree more. I think Burgess has made a huge mistake. Down to his ego and rivalry with SBW with him wanting to emulate what Sonny has.

Joel has been unlucky with injuries at crucial times in his RU career. Although not a massive success he has done well. I know a member of Sarries medical team who always spoke highly of Joel. I'm happy he's back however players returning from RU have a history of being half the player they were when they left.

I'm sorry Sam Burgess has gone for now.
But some of the above is rubbish.
Burgess will be the best centre by far that the England RU team has had in the professional era. I'm disregarding their 'amateur' days when prancing lightweights like Woodward were in vogue.
Trouble is, if England did win their World Cup, Sam would be gone for years.
Best result is if he has some stormers personally but England get goal kicked out.
Then Sam might be back in RL before he goes too soft.

I know it's a different type of player,... but I couldn't believe the transformation of Lee Smith in just a year he had in Union

Not sure how much this was down to his attitude or what, but he was hardly half the player he was before he left.

I'm sure Burgess will be a mediocre success in Union due to him making flashy runs, big tackles and some flashy off-loads ie not what usually happens in northern hemisphere RU, but they will soon get tired of this novelty just like they did with Chris Ashton.

Difference is that Ashton had 3 years of bedding in before he had to play for England... Burgess will not have that luxury