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Burgess: Rugby League Is In My Heart
Former Bath Rugby flanker Sam Burgess has revealed his reasons for quitting union and heading back to former club South Sydney Rabbitohs - a combination of personal reasons and a desire to spend the rest of his career playing the game that is in his heart.
In his exclusive column for Mail online, Burgess answered the questions all rugby fans have been wondering since he packed his bags, left Somerset and walked out of rugby union.
Getting straight to the point of the matter, Burgess wrote: '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.'
'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.'
'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.'
Leaving Bath was not a decison Burgess came to lightly, as he revealed a series of personal, family related issues all came into play.
Burgess wrote: 'Away from rugby, I had to weigh up, long-term, whether I wanted to be in England. My fiancee and I are hoping to start a family in the next year or two and it would be great to have our kids in Sydney where their grandparents will be around to help out.'
Despite the views of many that his exit was strategically timed in the aftermath of England's disasterous World Cup campaign, Burgess insists this simply was not the case.
'We didn't actually plan for it to happen as quickly as it did. We were looking towards Christmas as the time for me to leave, but then the transfer fee got paid and after that it was out of my hands.'
'I trained on Tuesday, expecting to play the following weekend, but then everything got sorted overnight and my services were no longer required,' he wrote.
Much speculation has gathered around the way Burgess departed the club, and informed his team mates of his decision to leave.
Setting apart fact from fiction, Burgess wrote: 'I wanted to go in and see the team, to get my point across, but Stuart Hooper, our captain, said he didn't think I'd be well received there, which was fair enough — if that's how he felt.'
'I wanted to go and say goodbye, not just as a team-mate but as a friend, but that didn't happen. I've not been back in there, but I've spoken to guys away from the club.'
Admitting himself the situation was far from ideal, Burgess also expressed his apologies to fans and fellow players who felt let down by his decision:
'I know I have disappointed some of the players and fans at Bath. I completely understand why they would feel that way. I am sorry for the fact that I've left a hole in that team.'
'But the way I explained it was that my heart just isn't in it, and if my heart's not in it then they won't get the best performances from me.'
The decision however was ultimately his own, and was not impacted by the actions of the Rugby Football Union, Burgess points out:
'The RFU have come in for a lot of stick for my decision, which I think is unfair. They didn't make it for me. They didn't push me into it. In fact, they have been supportive through it all. The RFU have not treated me badly.'
A big point of contention during Burgess' union stint, particularly surrounding the national team, was his playing position on the field, something many critics believed held him back.
'I came to union to try to play at 12, but I ended up playing at six for Bath. The competition in the back row was really tough and I had no chance of making the (England) team there, but at 12 I had a better shot because there aren't as many technicalities in the way so you can learn it quicker.'
'To get in that 31-man squad, I had to work so hard. To crack it was really, really tough but I loved that. I made it into the team as a 12 and I really felt that I fully deserved to be there.'
Burgess also defended his World Cup performances, which again have been a cause for much criticism in recent weeks.
'I've been criticised for my performances at the World Cup but I'm proud of how I performed. Yeah, I made a couple of errors like everybody else but if you want to break my game down, let's look at the facts.'
'While I was on the field, we were never behind, except against Australia when I came on for the last eight minutes,' Burgess wrote.
'We finished at the World Cup and I was deflated with the way things had gone and how the 'blame game' was played out and dealt with. It made me question whether I wanted to be part of it.'
'I felt I was never going to win, regardless of what happened, so I thought: 'I'm going to stop wasting my own time and everyone else's time here.'
Burgess did however admit that his contact with Rabbitohs has been continuous since his move to Somerset.
'I've been in contact with Madge (Michael Maguire, Rabbitohs coach) and Russell (Crowe, Rabbitohs co-owner) since I've been here, from day one.'
'Yes, I spoke to Madge the day after we lost to Australia and yes, I watched the Grand Final that morning — of course I did, because I love rugby league. I sat at breakfast, watching the final on my phone. It was a bloody exciting game.'
Overall, the sport of union just was not satisfying enough for the 26-year-old, who had grown up with an affinity with league.
'In rugby league, I used to get to certain times in the game when I was completely, physically gone. You feel like you are out on your feet, with the ball being in play for so long and my point of difference at times in league was being able to beat that, mentally, and help a few of the other boys get through it as well.'
'Yeah, union is tough, there are tough parts of it, but I never found myself reaching that point. League took me to places I'd never been before in games but I never found that in union.'
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