With immediate affect www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... pardy.html

With immediate affect www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... pardy.html

Weathers a bit crap up here ATM, but see you in a bit Sam yeah?

Is Mike Ford still SURE he'll stay?

This would follow on from Steve Macnmara's comments yesterday that ''something is happening''

What happened to no contact and we want £700k? Bath are a joke.

Some people are still saying Leeds are still in the mix with Souths. The 12 Month Deal might still be on.

A quick change form the announcements by Bath and the RFU but great to have him back www.rlbet.co.uk/sam-burgess-re-s ... -rabbitohs

A quick change form the announcements by Bath and the RFU but great to have him back www.rlbet.co.uk/sam-burgess-re-s ... -rabbitohs

Rabbitohs Members have received an Email stating Sam Burgess has signed a 2 year deal with them (2016-201icon_cool.gif. Not coming anywhere near us then.

Sadly not it would seem. Can't fault Leeds for giving it a good go though. But with out wanting to offend the good citizens of Leeds, if you had the choice of living and playing in Sydney with your close family around you or moving back to sunny West Yorks, even if the money was as good, what would you do?

Find it interesting that all the deals now end at end of 2018.

Good luck if that's what he (or his Mrs) wants. Never honestly thought Leeds were in the mix, especially when GH went public. Part of me happy he's back in RL, the majority frustrated that SL clearly can't compete with either NRL or RU. Coming to Leeds (the only club which could get close to giving him a deal) was clearly a very distant third choice. Not the future of #wallofwhite in my opinion

It says 2018 but it's a 3 year deal, so must be 2019.

2016, 2017, 2018 seasons = three year deal.

I think one thing is certain we will never see Sam playing club rugby in SL. Think he will see out his career in NRl. On the skywebsite saying glad he had been released to return back home and enjoyed his time in England

Oh I see what they mean now

I read somewhere some journo suggesting that the 2018 end date could allow Burgess to do a SBW and try RU again just before the next WC. Unbelievable nonsense.

Quote from Will Greenwood in the Daily Telegraph:

"I heard three weeks ago that Leeds Rhinos had offered Kallum Watkins in part-exchange."

I hope to god that is absolute garbage.

It was nonsense. It was Burgess camp that approached Leeds in the first place, not the other way round, and why Leeds thought there was a deal to be done.

I am not saying Watkins may not have been a demand later, and possibly why Leeds couldn't get the deal done, but Leeds certainly were not making the offers at the start.

I believe and hopefully I'm correct that is BS. Because if it isn't it suggests that either a) Watkins was in the loop and presumably has expressed some RU ambitions. b) He was in the loop but didn't want to go to RU or c) wasn't in the loop and was being treated as a trading commodity. None of which would encouraging IMO.

All it means is that Will Greenwood heard the same rumour any of here heard. Doesn't mean it was in any way true.

Totally agree with you which is why I started with





I was musing about how bad things might be [size=150IF[/size the talk of Leeds offering a player swap weren't just rumours.

It is a good and balanced article from Will Greenwood and worth reading. Greenwood is an ex England centre but also a League fan who attended the Grand Final rather than the England game on the same day.

For him to mention the Watkins rumour indicates he thought there was something in it and the comment about Eastmond preparing to walk if Sam was selected at 12 rather suggests there was confusion over which position he wanted to play.

His transition has been very badly managed at both club and country level where he was put in an invidious position with his teammates. When you add this to being blamed for England's WC exit and the Euro immigrant crisis it was no wonder he became disillusioned with Union.

If Burgess indeed did approach Leeds this would indicate that the homesick aspect of his reason for leaving was not the main one.

[urlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/sam-burgess/11978751/Sam-Burgess-return-to-league-is-damning-indictment-of-union.html[/url

For a man so obviously in the loop as Greenwood is I'm astounded he didn't make some of this knowledge public at the time. After all, it's what he's paid to do these days.

Spot on. To allegedly know of it for 3 weeks and not say anything makes it doubtful to me.

Perhaps he was told in confidence and is a man of integrity?

Well everybody knows the homesickness thing is a lie anyway. This is a guy who went to Australia and wasn't joined by his family for another 18 months-2 years so he knew full well what moving to the other side of the world away from them felt like. This occasion though he at least had his fiancée with him. I very much doubt he'd be feeling homesick if he'd have spent the last week celebrating a World Cup win and was being praised for his role in it.

Over time, the books and articles will be written by the main protagonists involved and we'll get to know exactly what happened behind the scenes.