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'I have felt this year I have been devalued as a player quite a lot'

(Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

Freddie Burns had admitted he is heading towards the exit at the Rec following a frustrating season with Bath. 

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The England out-half has spoken candidly about falling out of favour with the club’s director of rugby Stuart Hooper, who took over last summer from Todd Blackadder, the coach who brought Burns to Bath from Leicester in 2017.  

Marcus Smith takes on Dillon Lewis in the latest match in the RugbyPass FIFA 20 charity tournament 

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Set to be out of contract on June 30, Burns told the latest episode of The Rugby Pod: “I have been the first to admit I have been extremely frustrated with the lack of game time.

“I have felt this year I have been devalued as a player quite a lot in terms of not even getting an opportunity when the team was losing or playing badly.

“With regards to next year, I have got something in the pipeline that is almost done and dusted. But as soon as this kicked off [the coronavirus lockdown] it suddenly put that into a bit of difficulty.

“Bath still haven’t spoken to me about whether they want to keep me or let me go. I guess from the lack of game time and the lack of communication the writing is on the wall for me.

“I have looked elsewhere, I have got something lined up. It’s still not signed but it is tough to have communication during these times because you are not seeing directors of rugby or coaches on a day-to-day basis.”

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Burns came through the Bath academy before embarking on a career that took him to Gloucester and Leicester before he agreed to what he hoped would be a dream return to his native city club. 

“To put it bluntly, what should have been the dream move is turning into, not a complete nightmare, but something which is very far from what I was expecting it to be.

“Some of that I will take full credit for; I got sent off on my debut, I don’t put the ball down against Toulouse – that was completely self-inflicted.

“But there are other aspects which have been that have left me pretty disappointed and very frustrated with my time at Bath.

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“The boys have been great, coaches in part have been alright, but this year I feel not even hung out to dry, just forgotten about.

“I feel like an academy player again that I am having to earn respect from coaches and not even being given an opportunity to showcase what I can do, regardless of the fact I have been training well and when I have played, out of position, I have gone alright.”

WATCH: Freddie Burns talks RugbyPass through his fitness regime during coronavirus lockdown

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

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