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'I absolutely don't blame him for wanting to f*** off and go back'

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Ex-England lock Dave Attwood has provided a compelling take on the failed Sam Burgess experiment in rugby union. The rugby league star was signed from the NRL in Australia and debuted for Bath in November 2014, going on to make an England debut the following August in time for the 2015 World Cup. However, England’s pool stage elimination resulted in much of the blame being heaped on Burgess and he soon quit Bath, opting to return to South Sydney Rabbitohs and resume his career back in the NRL.  

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All these years later, the story remains a huge talking point and Attwood, a club and country teammate at the time of Burgess, has now given his side of a story that began with Mike Ford signing the cross-code player for Bath and ended with Stuart Lancaster’s England bombing out of the World Cup just three games into their pool schedule. 

“There were some amazing things,” said Attwood when asked on RugbyPass Offload for his memories of the year Burgess spent in union at Bath and England. “The whole organisation was called into a meeting and Mike Ford played a video of Sam Burgess highlights from rugby league. 

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Dave Attwood on bust ups with Owen Farrell, Sam Burgess & new Bath era | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 35

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Dave Attwood on bust ups with Owen Farrell, Sam Burgess & new Bath era | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 35

Bristol and England’s Dave Attwood joins the guys this week to reveal some loose stories from a well-traveled career. We hear about his run-in with Owen Farell, why his modern man approach didn’t go down well with a certain head coach, and skiing in France with the Galacticos of Toulon. We also get Dave’s first-hand account of Carl Fearns and Gavin Henson’s bust-up and the fallout from Sam Burgess’ move to Bath.

“He was like, ‘It’s exciting times, we have signed the best player in the world’. Cue the video. It’s narrated by Russell Crowe, basically talking about how amazing Sam is and is the best thing ever in rugby league… and then at the end of it, silence. 

“Fordy stands up and he is clapping on his own because everyone else is like, ‘What? What do you mean he is the best player in the world? He hasn’t even played the game before. He plays a different game, you do realise that Fordy, you realise you have signed someone who plays a different sport?’ It didn’t get off to the best start. 

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“We had a few abrasive characters in the squad as well so people like Carl Fearns, who is very abrasive, relative negative, and Matt Garvey, who is the most negative person you have ever met in the world, basically were pushed aside to bring Sam Burgess in and they rightly felt their nose was put out of joint. He could have been amazing for rugby union, he genuinely could have been a 50-capper England international but they forced him in too soon, there was a lot of disagreement between England and Bath.

“For me, he was a back row, he wasn’t a centre and I felt there was an element that whatever powers were trying to push him in that Andy Farrell mould of being a rugby league player moving into midfield. So there was a bit of conflict between club and country where he was going to play and he basically didn’t understand the game philosophically.

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“He was a back row who never ever hit a breakdown and never jumped in a lineout. So they were trying to shoehorn him into the team and play him where he doesn’t have to do any of that stuff, which is basically what you are supposed to do as a back row. 

“It was unfortunate that he didn’t fit the mould, and then the whole World Cup debacle fell apart and everyone blamed him. I absolutely don’t blame him for wanting to f*** off and go back. In Australia, he was a f***in’ rock star, a massive deal and he came to Bath where most people didn’t know who he was and those who did think he is an arsehole and f***ed everything up. 

“The whole thing was managed really unfairly on him and he suffered a lot of fallback. Unfortunately for us as a squad, because he had signed this long-term deal there were a number of guys whose noses were put out. Carl Fearns left, went down to Lyon and immediately got player of the year out on France. 

“The structure of our team fell apart. He went back to Australia and left a great big f***ing hole in the squad. It wasn’t his fault but it left us down as an organisation because we had all of this finance put into this guy and he then suddenly disappeared.”

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How much was he pocketing? “I was told it was half a million for Bath and I was also told it was a similar amount from England,” suggested Attwood, who added that as a teammate Burgess was a decent guy. “He was straight into the WhatsApp group and lads were, ‘Welcome Sam, show us your dick’. He was, ‘Yeah, alright’, instantly sent a selfie of his dick. No one was expecting that. 

“He was a genuinely good bloke, a nice bloke, worked hard but the management of the whole place, they didn’t manage the situation very well and unfortunately he was the fall-out guy.”  

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R
RedWarriors 38 minutes ago
The Springbok selection experiment is far from over

SA won two world cups but since 1987 there have been major issues with the draw and scheduling.


Lets look at Scotland and England. Scotland were ranked #9 immediately after RWC 2019.

They were ranked #7 a few months after and by 2023 they were ranked #5 in the world.

England were ranked #3 after RWC 2019 but by 2023 were #7 a full 3 ranking points behind Scotland.

There are 4 Pools. Because World Rugby used rankings from 2019, England were ranked #1 in their pool in with Argentina and Japan and Scotland were ranked #3 in their pool in with South Africa and Ireland. The pools went as youd expect: Scotland were eliminated and England got through to a QF where they got to play Fiji and scraped through to a semi.

At the end of that tournament England were now a full 3 ranking points ahead of Scotland. This wasn’t due to better rugby. It was entirely due to the draw.

Now England are in #6, Scotland are in #7 and England are favourites to be #1 Pool seeds (6 pool) in 2027 and Scotland will end up as #2 seeds.

In effect Scotland are still reeling from the draw in 2023 which was based on the rankings in 2027.

Considering the amount of admirable effort, money etc that Scotland have put into improving this is an utterly unforgivable outcome from World Rugby.

This isnt new Draw disasters and scheduling bias has been going on since the start.

The ONLY reason it is being dealt with now is because NZ and SA were affected and the world could see how ridiculous it was having the QFs with opponents that should be in SFs, and having great teams like Scotland not even qualify from their Pool.


(I don’t have beef with SA beyond their (and the Kiwis) high proportion of arrogant, brash supporters (see abuse directed at me above) and in the case of the NZ team, lack of respect for other teams.)

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R
RedWarriors 59 minutes ago
The Springbok selection experiment is far from over

Everyone agreed that the draw was absurd. NZ and SA were the most vocal in criticism before the Pool stages, but then the narrative changed after their squeeked through the QFs.

The reason you had to play France and England was because you lost to Ireland.

The draw helped you in that you got to play France in a QF where none of their players had knock-out winning experience. You play England first and then France, and your task becomes significantly harder. If you are also scheduled to play #5 ranked Scotland the week before France then you lose.


I thought Ireland did rise for the NZ match. Inside a week after Scotland and with resultant fatigue and injury. NZ prepared for a year for that match including identifying a potential infringemnt in Porters scrummaging which yielded 4 penalties. The NZ scrum coach remarked that the ref spent every scrum looking at Porter and not at NZ front row. Kudos, thats clever.


The fact we got within one score and went out attacking in their 22 shows we were right up for it. Particularly given NZ were so much better than SA in the final (except for the red).


Hats off to SA. But the idea that SA are a match for the great NZ team of the 2010s is ludicrous. SA were not the best team in there pool in both 2029 and 2023. They are average in between world cups. They have lost in 4 out of 5 matches against one opponent. Sorry but there it is.


(Anyone can spot a troll, using personal abuse against a person’s opinion being a pretty reliable indicator.)

35 Go to comments
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