The chief executive of England’s Rugby Football Union insisted Wednesday he felt “no embarrassment” over the return to rugby league of former Test centre Sam Burgess.
And Ian Ritchie was equally adamant that Burgess’s exit had played no part in Wednesday’s announcement that Stuart Lancaster was stepping down as England coach.
Burgess quit English Premiership rugby union side Bath last week after just 12 months in the 15-man game to return to league side South Sydney Rabbitohs, for whom he was the man-of-the-match in their 2014 Australian NRL Grand Final win before changing codes.
Ritchie, asked at a Twickenham news conference if Burgess’s situation had played any part in the departure of Lancaster, replied: “Not at all”.
“I don’t find the Sam Burgess situation in any way embarrassing,” said Ritchie.
“We had one of the leading rugby league players in the world wanting to come and play rugby union, and I think that was a positive.
“We were delighted that he wanted to come and delighted that he came.
“We did not pay a sum of money for Sam Burgess to come to rugby union and there was no insistence from Stuart, or anyone else at the RFU, that he had to be picked.
“He came here because he wanted to.
“He was trained and coached, as far as the RFU was concerned, in absolutely the right way.”
– Disappointment –
Bath coach Mike Ford, himself a former Great Britain rugby league international, angrily said Burgess “didn’t have the stomach” to see out his contract with the west country club.
Ritchie, however, took a more conciliatory tone, saying: “Obviously one’s disappointed that he’s chosen to go back, but that has to be a matter for him,” said Ritchie.
“Sam made that contribution and his selection for the squad was made on the basis of rugby, and that was the selection made by the head coach.
“And clearly he made his decision for the reasons he has outlined, which was outside of my control.
“So I do not see and I do not understand how the RFU could have done anything different from what we did.
“Here was a talented rugby player and athlete who was selected in the squad, and he made a full contribution during training while he was in the squad.
“Everybody can have a view on whether it was the right or the wrong call to select him.
“But I don’t see what else could have happened during that process and I feel no embarrassment at all about what happened with Sam Burgess.”
In a column this week for Britain’s Daily Mail, the 26-year-old Burgess said he wanted to start a family with his Australian fiancée, Phoebe Hook, in Sydney, where his brothers George and Thomas play for the Rabbitohs and his mother teaches at a boys’ school.
He added:”I wanted to spend the rest of my career playing the game that’s in my heart.
“Rugby League is in my heart.”