Clive Woodward calls English rugby a ‘laughing stock’ over Sam Burgess affair

‘We’ve reached one of the all-time lows,’ says World Cup-winning coach
• Bath belatedly confirm player will return to South Sydney Rabbitohs

South Sydney Rabbitohs have welcomed the return of Sam Burgess, centre.

 The World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward has launched a stinging attack on English rugby following Sam Burgess’s return to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, describing it as “embarrassing”, “arrogant” and a “laughing stock”.
Burgess has decided to go back to rugby league after only one season in union, cutting short his stint with Bath to rejoin his old club Souths on a three-year deal. He has left with immediate effect after the Rabbitohs – the club he led to victory in the 2014 NRL grand final – paid in the region of £750,000 to secure his release.
Burgess, who says he has missed his family in Australia, found himself in the spotlight during England’s miserable World Cup campaign having been fast-tracked into the national setup despite his lack of experience.
The 26-year-old’s premature return to league means he will be considered among the biggest cross-code flops in history but Woodward believes it is wrong to lay any blame on the player and has heavily criticised the Rugby Football Union for its part in the “total mess” English rugby currently finds itself.
Writing in his column in the Daily Mail, Woodward said: “I said last week that Sam Burgess is not to blame for this mess and I stand by it. But with his return to rugby league we’ve reached one of the all-time lows and most embarrassing points in English rugby history.
“The RFU has spent the last four years congratulating itself on the direction in which we’re heading but the truth is we have marched confidently into a total mess. The review after the 2011 World Cup was a shambles. Players and coaches let down by media leaks, good men exposed as scapegoats and lesser men hiding and shirking responsibility. Nothing has changed.”

Burgess struggled with England in the World Cup.

Woodward added: “We are the laughing stock of not only world rugby but also sport and business. The rest of the world says those involved in English rugby are arrogant. I hate this reputation but that is exactly what the RFU have been.”

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It was confirmed on Thursday that Burgess, who won five caps for England under Stuart Lancaster, was heading back to Australia to rejoin his brothers George and Tom at the Rabbitohs in time for the start of next year’s NRL campaign. Burgess played a key role in Souths winning the 2014 Grand Final and the Rabbitohs chief executive John Lee was thrilled to finally complete a move that he said had been on the club’s agenda for a while.
“It’s a great day for the club,” he said on Rabbitohs.com.au. “It’s taken a while. It’s taken a couple of months for this to come to fruition but [we had] some room to go for a marquee player, especially an attacking forward like Sam, and it’s just great news for all our members and the club.
“I spoke to Sam this morning and he’s got some mixed feelings because he has a great relationship with coach [Mike] Ford at Bath and also the players there but he’s going to have a great welcome back when he gets here. Sam lifts the whole club. He’s got a certain energy level, a certain amount of gravitas. There’s no doubt that Sam Burgess brings an X-factor to our club and specifically to his mates on the team.”
Burgess said after sealing his switch back to league: “I must thank Bath especially for granting my release to return home to my family, who I have missed more than I could have imagined. I am also extremely excited to be joining back up with South Sydney.
“I had a wonderful time in England and learned a lot about the game of rugby union as both a back and a forward, and I have definitely developed as an all-round player and athlete after that.”
The Souths coach, Michael Maguire, feels Burgess was “born to play” rugby league. The former Wigan Warriors coach told ABC in Australia: “I could not be happier to see Sam coming home to the Rabbitohs. He had an enormously positive impact on our club, both on and off the field, throughout the five seasons he was here, and to be bringing back one of the game’s most dominant players is fantastic for not only our club but the game itself.

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“The next chapter is for him to return to the game he was born to play, and we’re over the moon that he is coming home to do that with his Rabbitohs family here at South Sydney.”
Bath confirmed on Friday morning that Burgess was heading back to Australia. A tweet from the club said: “@bathrugby can confirm that @SamBurgess8 has left the club and will return to @ssfcrabbitohs.”
A Bath statement said: “The club have remained committed to Burgess’s ongoing development as a rugby union player since his move to the west country but now recognise that, for personal reasons, he no longer sees his future in the 15-man game. Having settled on agreeable terms within the last 24 hours, Bath are therefore releasing Burgess with immediate effect.”
The statement from the Premiership club arrived 11 hours after news of Burgess’s departure had been confirmed by Souths and came after two days of denials from the owner, Bruce Craig, and Ford that the end of his union career was imminent.
“We hoped that Sam would stay at Bath. He was doing really well in making the switch over from league and, given time, he could’ve been a great rugby union player. Unfortunately, for personal reasons, he is returning to Australia,” Ford said in the statement.
“However, we’re fortunate that we’ve got some very high calibre players here at the club, and with a big run of games coming up in the Premiership and the European Rugby Champions Cup, we’ll be fully focused on these.”