‘If Sam stays on England win’ – ex-international duo slam Burgess treatment in rugby union, calling World Cup decision ‘madness’
Cross-code legend Jonathan Davies sympathises with Sam Burgess.
Rugby union has been accused of completely mishandling Sam Burgess’ cross-code move as the league great prepares to take centre stage at Wembley.
Burgess leads Warrington out against Wigan for Saturday’s Challenge Cup Final just four months into his first season as a head coach following an iconic playing career.
Standing out like a sore thumb in his playing CV is the ill-fated year he spent in union after leaving South Sydney to join Bath with the intention of helping England win their home Rugby World Cup.
Made the fall guy
Not only did the Red Rose nation make history as the first hosts to bomb out in the pool stages, Burgess was made the fall guy by many for the humiliating campaign.
Jonathan Davies, who starred in both codes of rugby before becoming a respected broadcaster, says he looked on incredulously as Burgess was played at flanker by Bath and centre by England.
Speaking exclusively to Planet Rugby, Davies said: “I have a lot of sympathy for Sam and the way he was treated by rugby union. I think he was poorly managed by England and by Bath.
“It’s amazing how they think they know everything, some of these rugby union coaches, yet don’t understand the animal that they’re getting.
“I look at Iestyn Harris, poorly managed. I look at Henry Paul, poorly managed. They blamed Sam for the England defeat against Wales in the World Cup, really?
“If Sam stays on England win, I have no doubt about it, because Wales had no go-forward when he was there and all of a sudden he goes off and Wales start going forward, getting it wide and they score that miraculous try.
“The next thing you know the knives are out for Sam, ‘why did they buy him’ and all of that.
“With Jason Robinson it was different,” Davies added. “As a winger and full-back he had time to adapt and they looked after him. I don’t think that happened with the other players. It has been rugby union’s loss.”
Burgess played 21 games in the back-row for Bath, including the 2015 Premiership final, before swiftly returning to league in Australia after his fifth Test appearance, a heavy defeat by the Wallabies that confirmed England’s elimination.
Paul Grayson, who won a World Cup for England and contributed 400 points in a nine-year international career, describes union’s treatment of Burgess as “madness”.
The former fly-half said: “When Sam signed, for me he was a centre all day long. He could have been an outstanding union player. He was at the right time in his career. Playing him as a forward, I think they got it completely wrong.”
Grayson knows what he is talking about, having helped league imports Chris Ashton and Stephen Myler transition into union stars as a coach at Northampton Saints.
Wales call “madness”
“When you’ve got a short-term project to turn a league player into a union player you’re weighing up the complexities of forward play versus doing half the job he would do in league anyway,” he explained.
“I thought it was madness to even consider trying to play him in the back-row and get him involved in the line-out and everything else.
“You saw that game against Wales in the World Cup when they played him in the centre, he was a significant figure in the game. Wales were getting no change out of England and they took him off. It was madness.”
After Burgess pulled the plug on his misadventure and headed back Down Under, former Great Britain coach Tony Smith accused union of making him a “scapegoat”, saying it had “used him and chewed him up to some degree. Sam was hung out to dry”.
Burgess’ own take, articulated three years later, was that, “what cost us an early exit was individual egos and selfish players not following our leader – which essentially cost the coach and other great men their jobs.”
It is all water under the bridge now and while Bath return to Twickenham for their first Premiership final since he lined up in their number six jersey against Saracens in 2015, the 35-year old will hope for an altogether happier ending up the road at Wembley.