Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:34 am  

Looks like he is the fall guy for the Wales defeat http://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/ne ... erformance

Looks like he is the fall guy for the Wales defeat http://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/ne ... erformance

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:45 am  

There's an incredible amount of union snobbery being directed towards the lad. Personally, I don't rate any of the rest of the squad to lick his boots. He's already done more stuff in his league career than most of that bunch of public school wnkas will ever do.

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:47 am  

Fools! It wasn't Burgess' fault that there was a hole in the defence that led to the Wales try after he went off. Also it wasn't his fault that they chose not to go for goal to guarantee a draw. Ah well lets just blame RL as that avoids having to criticise establish RU players who were about as effective as a chocolate fireguard!

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:12 pm  

Some of the articles I've seen this week look like they were written before a ball was kicked on Saturday. Some of them couldn't wait to stick the boot in are desperate to see him fail.

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:23 pm  

To be fair, that's just an Irishman stirring the pot. Many of the reviews were quite positive; the Torygraph for example gave SB a 7, which I thought was possibly a bit generous.

Realistically he didn't do too much wrong, and a fair bit right, and it certainly wasn't his fault that England lost. His experienced international centre partner was probably the worst player on the pitch,

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:34 pm  

I fall for the same thing every time with Union, I buy into the hype, the wonderful presentation of a competitive WC with our national team playing with the nations recognition in their own stadium-all very impressive.

However when the game kicks off within no time at all I grow bored of the attributes I'm told I should respect as the 'thinking's man's rugby' (rucks/mauls etc). Because unlike a large percentage of the nation, I know about rugby league, and nothing advertises league more than a game of union.

So here we have it, told that it's one of the biggest games in England history and of course in the rugby world cup (for the record nothing has boiled my blood more than the pig ignorance of the RFU calling the comp RWC rather than the Rugby Union WC completely disregarding that there's another code) In this game Sam Burgess is destined to fail in the eyes of the media (who are all London based Union supporters from their public school days) when really is he to blame?

Lancaster plays an immobile Faz at 10 with the most static centre in all of rugby Barrit at 13 with Sam, an inexperienced RU player between the two doing what he can. Firstly he hammered Roberts shutting him of the game, knocked North into touch and generally did what he could. Scoreline was in England's favour until Sam was subbed, says it all really.

No surprise the 'northern league lad' is taking the stick...
I hope he comes back to league, where his skills shine, in a much more entertaining game.

If only league had money and brains behind it...

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:38 pm  

Good. The sooner he realises how his new family really think about him, the quicker he might return to his real family.

But I don't think it's only Sam. If England go out next weekend, will Andy Farrell keep his job? Suddenly they'll all remember that he's ex-RL too.

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 1:11 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

Good. The sooner he realises how his new family really think about him, the quicker he might return to his real family.

But I don't think it's only Sam. If England go out next weekend, will Andy Farrell keep his job? Suddenly they'll all remember that he's ex-RL too.

I can see the whole coaching staff going if they don't qualify past the group stage, Lancaster first.

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 4:41 pm  

I've been following the RUWC on another forum with some quite knowledgeable union fans. Hardly any of them are down on Sam Burgess at all. All agree that Barrit looked the problem (if it was down to one player) against Wales, and Sam did little wrong. One commented that it was precisely the errors expected of Burgess before the tournament (poor defensive positioning, etc) that the experienced Barrit was guilty of. Despite all that, I gather he'll be playing in the next game!

[Wigan6/Leeds1 Andy]

Re: Sam Burgess : Wed Sep 30, 2015 4:43 pm  

Lets hope the Aussies finish the job off on Saturday, if only to stop those nauseating O2 adverts.