Being in negotiations is normally a sign that someone has had a conversation. No surprise if Souths have first refusal. Wondering if Manly is also an option for him with Luke there? They thought he was going to join them last time only for Mr Crowe to be over there and have conversations to seal the deal with a better offer.

He didn't play for Bath at the weekend. A move back to league looks likley.

The mole has said he won't be returning to Souths anytime soon, and Leeds are favourite's to sign him at the moment.

Hmm, I can see Leeds maybe getting him on a "Loan" while Souths clear the decks in preparation for next year, unless he wants a move back to the UK, I just cant see him signing a long term deal at Leeds (Love to be wrong) but I trust The Sleeve to negotiate a good deal

Gets more wrong than right that mon, seems to just chuck sh*t at the wall til something sticks! Channel 9 however reporting that he's in "high level" negotiations with Souths but they also mention he would be interested in Leeds. Would love him back in Super League.

Not sure if it's still valid (even if it was in the first place) but, when he signed for Souths we were told that should he return to British Rugby League Bradford have first option.

I would p in my pants if it's an actual thing and Leeds ignored it to sign him. Leading to a protracted and damaging court case.

As if Bradford would be able to pay him. All he has to say to Bradford is 'Can you pay me?' When they say 'No', he is free to choose whichever club he wants.

Nah they'd be due some compo at least.

You wouldn't want to lose another one, surely?

Please can we stop all this speculation about Sam Burgess returning to Rugby League.
Its not going to happen unless a Rugby League club comes up with mega bucks

Is Chris Caisley still his manager?

Be interesting to see how the negotiation went between him and Hetherington if they are speaking to each other.

But he's not under that contract anymore. He left Souths (obviously) so the only things that stand are in his contract with Bath. It's like Mike Cooper, he had some after-two-years-back-to-Wire thing in his contract but that's gone now as he's signed a new contract.

I believe he is. I hadn't considered the implications though.

Are you sure Omar didn't sell that option for £5 and a bag of magic beans?

If he did there won't be a record of it anywhere.

Allegedly, of course.

"First option" is usually actually "first and last option". Which means Burgess would first have to negotiate with Bradford, but then could explore other options. If he than agrees terms with another team (eg Leeds) Bradford would have "last option" to match the terms being offered there, in which case Burgess would have to sign for them.

That's assuming there *is* such a clause and it isn't invalidated by Bradford not being in the top league. Or whether Bradford is even the same corporate entity as the Bradford Burgess left, which would also invalidate any clause.

even on sky web sight they say in OZ they are sorting out is contract so it might be true he is coming back to league

no matter how painful it is for bath, if sam burgess has told them he is done with union and wants to go back to league then there is no point them keeping an unhappy player.

There isn't. Sam has also shown that contracts mean squat to him, so waving his Bath contract in his face won't mean anything to him. Having said that I think he'll stay at Bath at least for this contract, as he'll be desperate not to be seen as a failure.

Yeah, he's gonna stay at Barth.

"Rested" again for this weekends game even though Bath have a few injuries to deal with.

Sadly' when Burgess comes back to Rugby League, the reaction in the Union world will be minimal. He will just be a league long shot who could not cut it. For all the excitement on here his attempted switch will only have shown us in a negative light. A move to Super League would just compound that perception of failure for Union types. The sooner he gets back to Australia and plays at the top level the sooner we can forget about this farce.

The story is looking like it must have something behind it as it's now being reported on sky. They don't usually report stuff without a decent source.

It must have been pretty devastating for Sam to read interviews from his fellow team mates that his selection caused such a rift in the squad and was blamed for a disastrous WC.

i disagree. he made the England team within a few months, and were leading Wales by 7 points when he was taken off. in my opinion had Burgess remained on the field England wud av won. J Roberts thought, right Burgess is off, give me the ball.

There is no problem with this whatever
Burgess' pride may be slightly hurt but, it makes sense all round to get the guy playing a better sport that he is superb at playing.
Also, "failing" at the other code happened all the time back in the 80's but, in those days, it was the Union boys that couldn't hack playing League.