Sam Burgess has left Bath after just a year in rugby union to rejoin the Australian rugby league side South Sydney Rabbitohs. The 26-year-old, who inadvertently became a lightning rod for England's failure at the Rugby World Cup, will rejoin the club with whom he won the NRL title last year before switching codes to return to England.
His twin brothers, George and Thomas, have secured their long-term futures with Russell Crowe’s team by signing deals until the end of 2018, and Burgess’s immediate family – including older brother, Luke, and mother, Julie – will all be in Sydney for the foreseeable future.
Burgess is getting married in Australia later this year and is also motivated by the challenge of pushing Souths back to the top of the game after they finished seventh last season.
Any transfer fee is of little problem to Souths, who are co-owned by the Hollywood movie star Crowe, despite Bath reportedly being keen to recoup most of the £500,000 (€700,000) they paid to Souths if they agree to release him from the final two years of his contract.
The deal was agreed after the former Rabbitohs’ chief executive Shane Richardson, who is the NRL’s head of strategy after leaving Souths himself last year, flew in to sort out the paperwork.
Reports in Australia suggest he could earn almost €1 million a year on rejoining Souths, making him the NRL’s highest-paid player.
England were determined to take Burgess to the World Cup, dropping the more established Northampton centre Luther Burrell to fast-track a player who they felt offered leadership and big-game experience.
Other than a strong final-quarter cameo off the bench against a tiring Fiji in the World Cup opener, he was unable to make an impression on the tournament as the hosts crashed out in the pool stage.
His union transition has been made harder by England’s instance on using him as an inside centre while last season he played his best rugby for Bath at blindside flanker.
(Guardian service)
