nah, Sky just want ratings. And they've just taken it frm Danny Weidler (Chann.9). The Mole on twitter, is the most reliable source on RL stuff I've come across.

I'd agree with that. If the Union media wanted a scapegoat, it should have been that prop (Marler?) {and the forwards coach} who wouldn't push straight or whatever that resulted in so many penalties (and points) against England RU.

Agree that Sam's initial instinct would be to fight on to make a success. BUT he's subsequently come to realise:

- After a much needed rest, he is wasting his life / talent putting himself on a RU field where they require only a fraction of what his talents can offer
- How unjustifiably nasty the Union mafia media can be
- He doesn't enjoy the game of Union and misses playing RL
- NRL is more intense over a season than SL - so his best option is Leeds Rhinos (with or without a possible final 3 or 4 years in the NRL) after at least one year at Headingley. (My guess is he'll opt for the middle way of seeing out his career with the Rhinos and looking forward to playing for England in the 2016 Four Nations and 2017 Rugby League World Cup).

Guessing it's gone quiet as there are a lot of negotiations going on behind the scenes with the involvement of lawyers!

With him not playing RU again this week, it looks like Sam's on his way home.

The Union media will put whatever spin on it they want - but my guess is that the less blinkered Union people will watch on SKY and see Burgess starring and displaying amazing talent again for both Leeds Rhinos (hopefully many more times at Wembley and Old Trafford) and England RL (including hopefully helping us win the RL World Cup IN Australia in 2017) and start to see that the problem is not Sam Burgess but in fact the nature of the Union game.

Perhaps this is being looked at from the wrong angle. Is there not a real chance that Bath are the ones who have made the choice for Sam and have made it known to various Chairmen that he is available for transfer?

If they have they haven't told Mike Ford. He's in the press again saying it's all lies and he's going to extend his Bath contract.

The whole thing strikes me as Burgess fancying a bit of what SBW has. He is an expert at swinging between the codes and there was constant speculation about his future, which is great from a PR point of view. Burgess seems to be following the same business model, big speculation and move to RU. Then the selection (Which was a pre-agreed part of his contract, don't let them fool you otherwise) for England keeps him in the press. Had he just sloped off back to Bath he would have fallen out of the headlines, so instead he's started the rumours of the move back to the NRL to keep his name in the press. His appearance at the England RL game was needless, especially sitting next to the coach.

IMO it's all a big PR smear. He'll stay in Union this season and beyond if he gets picked by the Lions. If not, he'll return to League.

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.

I don't think that's the case. Darren Smith played for Aus when they ran out of bodies. I'd be surprised if NZ were that bothered TBH.

Leeds name is being mentioned less and less as more reports are coming in. I still have a little hope though, but a Sydney return looks likely.

If Sam switches (and he may not) wouldn't immediate selection for England just be the mistake RU made? It may well disrupt the camp, he will not me match fit, etc (and surely even we gave better centresicon_wink.gif !!!). Having said that just the sort of stunt the RFL would pull yo boost ticket sales if needs be.

Seems to me that Sam's RU signing / promotion to England was all about using him as a political football. This seems to have been borne out by just how much RL and especially the NRL were mentioned during the RUWC. It us about trying to get RL / NRL fans and players watching RU and undermining the NRL gradually to complete their jigsaw. The fact that I'M seeing no published press reports from Oz other than quoting BBC and only Channel 9's story makes me concerned it's just about getting more political mileage from Sam and he may therefore be staying in RU? Against that there is the no smoke without fire angle and pure logic - why wouldn't he want to play a game he's built for and very good at alongside his brothers?

Mike Ford's just told the BBC that Burgess will stay at Bath, out of all the union people he at least seems to want Sam there and knows that he is a forward and not a centre. Either that or it's all just a ruse to get a bigger transfer fee of course.