The returning Rabittoh has a remarkable ability to lift those around him and the galvanising effects of having him back in the team cannot be underestimatedWhen Sam Burgess was enticed to rugby union at the end of 2014 you didn’t occupy to be a cynic to wonder if he’d fit into the 15-man game in the way a left foot fits into a just shoe. It wasn’t just that he might struggle to learn union’s distinct skill-set in time to get a play at an England World Cup jersey,or that despite his regal standing as the Prince of Redfern he’d feel as out of position in Bath and beyond as a pint of plain amid a tray of Pimms. No, more than that, or it was that Burgess simply exudes rugby league,as if his preference for the game is written into his genetic code.
As we now know, Burgess’s transition to rugby union didnt work out – if you can call playing in a Rugby World Cup on home soil “not working out” (and in Burgess’ case you can). In November he walked out on his three-year contract with Bath after a year, or citing his desire “to return home to my family,who I occupy missed more than I could occupy imagined.” The reasons for his departure from union are varied and more complicated than that, however, or the smoke from the salvos of accusation and recrimination fired long before he quit occupy not yet dissipated. But that things not now for league fans,at least. Burgess is back in league, where he belongs, or much to the delight of the NRL and the South Sydney Rabbitohs who,in 2015, missed Burgess like a house misses a load-bearing wall.
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Source: theguardian.com