Sam Burgess: Ex-players 'agenda' and constant England leaks from team-mates drove him back to rugby league

Sam Burgess has written in detail about his embarrassingly messy exit from rugby union after just a year, in which he explained that he left the 15-man code because he did not love it like he did rugby league and because he was always fighting a losing battle against those that set out with an “agenda” against him.

Burgess moved from Bath to National Rugby League side South Sydney Rabbitohs last week, a year after making the reverse switch in a £500,000 deal to bring him to union in a bid to try and boost England’s Rugby World Cup chances.

England head coach Stuart Lancaster fast-tracked Burgess into his side, but while Burgess was playing at blindside flanker for Bath, he was selected as an inside centre for his country. The 26-year-old went on to make his first World Cup start against Wales after Jonathan Joseph was ruled out with injury, while he also played the final eight minutes against Australia in the defeat that consigned England to an embarrassingly early exit at their own World Cup.

However, Burgess has defended himself for his performance against Wales – indeed the hosts were winning the match when Burgess was replaced – and has attempted to explain himself to those who feel he has taken the easy way out in an early return to league, 18 months before his contract with Bath was due to expire.

“My decision to leave Bath and move back to Australia was for personal reasons, but it was also because I wanted to spend the rest of my career playing the game that’s in my heart,” Burgess wrote in his column for the Daily Mail. “Rugby league is in my heart. I’m looking forward to getting back to Sydney, where I’ll be with my family and playing for the Rabbitohs alongside my brothers again.

“Part of me is disappointed to be leaving. Everyone is saying I’ve taken the easy option but it would have been easier to stay and play on in union. I could have just kept playing at six for Bath, but I believe it would have taken about 18 months for me to break into the England team in that position — and my contract is up in about 18 months. In sport we have a very limited window in which to compete at the top level and I didn’t want to see those 18 months go by without the same excitement and enthusiasm as the previous 12.”

Burgess admittted that while playing league he felt like he was pushed to his physical limits that helped him stand out compared to other players, but revealed that union failed to test him to the same requirements.

He also explained that a number of people outside of the England squad and coaching staff were eager to see him fail even before he got started, and he said that after enough people joined the growing voice against him, it all became too much.

“I think a lot of people outside the England camp had an agenda against both England and in some circumstances, me,” Burgess added. “Certain ex-players had an agenda and sections of the media had an agenda, too. I also think certain coaches not involved with England had an agenda.

“Slowly but surely, when you are trying to get support within the team and the voices from outside with an agenda are so strong, it’s too powerful. No matter what I did, I always felt that I was fighting a losing battle.”

open image in gallery

One point that Burgess made that will be food for thought for either Lancaster or the coaching team that replaces him is how the players took respoinsibility – or rather a lack of it – and how the stories from the fallout of their World Cup elimination were continually leaked from the England dressing room.

Dewsbury-born Burgess believes that the leaks are “really disappointing” that caused him to consider his options in a sport he “didn’t want to stay in” and added that “as players, I think we should take more responsibility for what has happened.”

Burgess returns to rugby league having made just 21 appearances for Bath, during which he scored a respectable four tries, while he made five Test appearances for England as well as playing in one match for the England Saxons, giving him a total of 27 matches in his rugby union career.