Sam Burgess’s return to rugby league is inching closer, despite the Bath coach, Mike Ford, insisting that the 26-year-old will remain in rugby union. Burgess is increasingly keen on a move back to the 13-man code.
Bath are the only obstacle remaining in rugby league’s path to secure his return, with Ford keen to keep Burgess at all costs only one year into a three-year contract.
Burgess, however, wants to move back to league and rejoin South Sydney Rabbitohs, the club with whom he won the NRL title last year before switching codes to sign for Bath.
With his twin brothers, George and Thomas, having secured their long-term futures with Souths by signing deals until the end of 2018, it means 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 down under; they finished seventh this year after winning the NRL in Burgess’s final season with the club.
It was initially feared that salary cap issues would prevent Burgess from securing a move back to the Rabbitohs but the NRL has confirmed that any transfer fee payable to Bath would not count on Souths’ cap for 2016, which gives them significant room to strike a deal.
Any transfer fee would be of little problem to a club such as Souths, who are co-owned by the Hollywood movie star Russell Crowe, despite Bath reportedly being keen to recoup most of the £500,000 they paid to Souths to lure Burgess to union if they agree to release him from the final two years of his deal.
Despite a return to rugby league almost certainly meaning a move back to Australia – the Super League champions, Leeds, are understood to be monitoring the situation – the Rugby Football League is also helping to orchestrate a deal as it feels Burgess would help to boost the profile of the sport before the 2017 World Cup, being held in the southern hemisphere.
