Rugby union has been accused of completely mishandling Sam Burgess’ cross-code move as the league’s greats prepare to take centre stage at Wembley Stadium.
Burgess is just four months into his first season as head coach after a legendary playing career and will lead Warrington to face Wigan in Saturday’s Challenge Cup final.
What stands out in his playing career is an unlucky year at Union after he left South Sydney for Bath in a bid to help England win the Rugby World Cup.
Created a scapegoat
Not only did the Red Rose nation make history as the first host nation to be eliminated at the pool stage, but Burgess was made the scapegoat by many for a humiliating election campaign.
Jonathan Davies, who played for both sides in rugby before becoming a respected broadcaster, said he watched in disbelief as Burgess played as a flanker for Bath and at centre for England.
Speaking exclusively to Planet Rugby, Davies said: “I have a lot of sympathy for Sam and the treatment he’s received from the rugby union. I think he’s been treated badly by England and by Bath.”
“Some rugby union coaches think they know it all but it’s amazing how little they understand the animal they’re dealing with.
“You look at Iestene Harris and you see it was bad management. You look at Henry Paul and you see it was bad management. They say it was Sam’s fault England lost the World Cup to Wales but is that true?”
“If Sam stays on for England to win I have no doubt about it because when he was there Wales had no momentum going forward and then all of a sudden he goes off and Wales start to go forward, get the ball sideways and score a miraculous try.”
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“The next thing I know, there’s a lot of criticism being levelled at Sam, like, ‘Why did they buy him?’
“It wasn’t like that with Jason Robinson,” Davies added. “As a winger and full-back he had time to adapt and the team looked after him. I don’t think the other players had that. It’s a loss for rugby union.”
Burgess made 21 appearances in the back row for Bath, including the 2015 Premiership final, before quickly returning to Australian league action after a heavy defeat to the Wallabies in just his fifth test appearance that confirmed England’s elimination.
Paul Grayson, who won the World Cup with England and scored 400 goals in a nine-year international career, described the association’s treatment of Burgess as “madness”.
The former fly-half said: “When Sam signed he was an all-day centre for me. He could have been a standout player for Union. He was at the right point in his career and I think it was a complete mistake to use him as a forward.”
Grayson knows what he is talking about, having previously helped league transfers Chris Ashton and Steven Myler develop into Union stars as coach at Northampton Saints.
Wales calls it “madness”
“The short-term project of turning a league player into a union player is weighing the intricacies of playing as a forward against doing half the work he would do in league,” he explained.
“I thought it was madness to even consider playing him in the back row and getting him involved in the lineouts and all that.
“You saw him playing in the centre against Wales in the World Cup. He was a vital part of the game. Wales got nothing from England so they left him out. It was madness.”
After Burgess gave up his ill-fated adventure and returned to Australia, former England manager Tony Smith accused the union of making him a “scapegoat”, saying: “The union used him and to a certain extent tormented him. Sam was backed into a corner.”
Burgess’ view, three years later, was that “the early eliminations were due to individual egos and selfish players who refused to follow their leaders, which essentially cost the coaches and other great men their jobs.”
It’s all in the past now as Bath return to Twickenham for the first time in a Premiership final since donning the number six shirt against Saracens in 2015, but the 35-year-old will be hoping for an overall happy ending to the away game at Wembley.
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