The trend of english rugby union players leaving the sport for RL continues, as highly rated Exeter Josh Jones leaves the club to try his hand in Super League... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35304207

The trend of english rugby union players leaving the sport for RL continues, as highly rated Exeter Josh Jones leaves the club to try his hand in Super League... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35304207

Quote ="EHW"The trend of english rugby union players leaving the sport for RL continues, as highly rated Exeter Centre Josh Jones leaves the club to try his hand in Super League... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35304207'" If past history is anything to go by he would have been close to England selection come 6 nations time

Quote ="EHW"The trend of english rugby union players leaving the sport for RL continues, as highly rated Exeter Centre Josh Jones leaves the club to try his hand in Super League... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35304207'" If past history is anything to go by he would have been close to England selection come 6 nations time

Bizarre, maybe not good enough.

Good news whenever this happens in my opinion, just shows that some people do pay attention to our game and it will bring more publicity

Don't know what the personal circumstances are do we so might be nothing to do with if he's been good enough to play union.

He was a steady if unspectacular centre for Saints. Should get a place somewhere.

Yep.The article says he switched in June but i'm sure he moved after Saints season ended in October didn't he? if so, that means he has been in Union for a maximum of 3 months. Hardly time to get used to the rules let alone be classed not good enough!

Says somewhere he wants to be closer to home as wife is expecting

It's great he's back in the game and not playing RU. It doesn't mention any clubs, I would expect huddersfield to be interested in him.

Signed for Salford.

3 months is long enough to realise how crap Union is, I don't blame him better to come back now before too much damage to his league career was done.

He's not going to find it much better at Salford though is he?
I'd bet that he regrets the day that he left the Saints

Only time will tell. At least he must be happy back playing TGG.

Shouldn’t this thread be titled "Average Rugby League player heads home".

Union Star Convert! Give me a break.

WWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Can't help but think he's been poorly advised on his move.

He had a pretty sweet gig at Sts. He was doing well without being the star with a good career in front of him.
Going to Rugby Union is all well and good but he choose a low profile club so it wasn't quite a Burgess coup from either side.
But if he'd gone because he wanted to play Union rather than move specificity to Exeter he'd surely have looked for a job at a northern rugby union club to be closer to home?
I assume he didn't know his wife was pregnant before he took the deal but if she was then that's an even worse decision.

Should have just stayed put.

I do think Salford have a good player though. They are the winners in this, assuming his whole heart is in it.

Newcastle to choose from and Exeter have been top of the Union Premiership for most of the season, so you cant blame him for going there.
However, unless he played a lot of Union in his younger days, how could he expect to pick the game up in such a short space of time.
Wing, FB and Scrum Half may be similar to League but, playing centre and any of the forward positions are totally different, not to mention some of the ambiguous rules that he would have to learn and adapt to.

As you say, who advised him to go down the Union path ?

Regardless of whether his partner is expecting, it would appear to have been poor advice.

I did hesitate when I put that Exeter were low profile as they are doing well and clearly ambitious but what I meant was, in just the same was Castleford are doing well in RL, they are not regarded as high profile yet when compared to Leeds or Wigan. That take longer to establish yourself, rightly or wrongly.

Going to Union, just like it has been for those coming the other way, has to be seen as a long term move. If you think you'll just walk in to the team and play you'll be surprised.
It used to be the case that League players were just physically in better shape and more adept at the basic running and tackling skills but that has changed with the influx of League coaches going to RU and that advantage is diminishing. You now have to learn the game as well.

Totally agree PT, lets hope that it slows down any drift to the dark side.
Tbf, I don't think Jones or Burgess gave it enough time. However, in both cases, it's good to have them back on the right side of the divide !

Or Sale Sharks, he's ended up in the same stadium.

forgot all about them

He would have been Wakefields best player had he signed for them

Regards

King James

That wouldn't be hard

True, but Ben Te'o (virtually ignored by the English press after the Burgess hoo-ha) seems to be doing OK. Always was a good player at the Bunnies.

Many apologies your Grace, I forgot the parochialist nature of the R.L fan & their un-waning loyalty towards one of their own.

For a second I forgot my place, I could only dream of seeing such a class act playing for my “tin pot” team, especially with him coming from St’s an’ all.

I cannot get my head round this story. I seem to have read that he was farmed out to a fourth division side. Something must have gone wrong pretty quickly for him to be distanced from his club like that. Hopefully he will make the most of his return (but not against us).