Sam Burgess: League convert to take a break from rugby as he considers his future

Sam Burgess, the rugby league specialist who was fast-tracked into England’s union squad for the World Cup against all sporting logic and failed to fire a shot during the host nation’s abject campaign, is reported to be considering his future in the game. If he decides on an early return to the 13-man code, there will be enough red faces at Twickenham to fill the stadium.

The Yorkshireman has two years left to run on his contract with the Premiership club Bath, whose head coach, the former England defence strategist Mike Ford, has spent much of this week rubbishing rumours that his highest-paid player was about to abandon his fledgling career in union.

But the BBC claimed that Burgess, who did not feature in Bath’s defeat at Wasps last Saturday and is not being considered for the forthcoming home match with Harlequins, had been given time off to weigh up his next move.

There has been an increasing amount of noise in Australia about an imminent return to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, where Burgess played with great success between 2010 and last autumn, when he joined Bath on a deal thought to be in the region of £500,000 a season – unusually high for any union player anywhere in the world and positively stratospheric for a newcomer with no obvious position and only a rudimentary grasp of the laws.

His younger brothers, the twins Tom and George, recently committed themselves to the Rabbitohs for another three seasons. His older brother, Luke, also plays in Sydney, with Manly Warringah, while his mother, who works as a teacher in the city, has been quoted as describing Australia as the family’s “second home”.

Burgess had started his union career as an inside centre but struggled to make sense of the role and was quickly switched to play as a blind-side flanker.

Inexplicably, however, the England head coach, Stuart Lancaster, ignored all available evidence and selected Burgess for the World Cup squad as a centre.

This put a squeeze on numbers and led to three far more capable Test midfielders – Billy Twelvetrees of Gloucester, Luther Burrell of Northampton and Kyle Eastmond, a clubmate of Burgess at the Recreation Ground – being cut from the final 31-man party.

It has since transpired that the decision caused significant discomfort – not to say dismay – among the England players, many of whom felt Burrell, in particular, had been harshly treated. Some experienced international coaches, most notably Warren Gatland of Wales, openly expressed their surprise at Burrell’s demotion.

During England’s brief stay at their own global tournament, Burgess made appearances off the bench in Pool A matches against Fiji and Australia and started the game against Wales.

Lancaster’s midfield selection for the contest with Wales was widely seen as being too defensive and this turned out to be the case. Despite dominating possession and territory, the hosts scored only one try and left themselves open to a Welsh comeback which ultimately proved to be their undoing.