Sam Burgess backed to answer red rose call – but as a flanker, not a centre

Current indications are England will ignore the fact Burgess is now a full-time flanker at club level and choose him as a midfielder

Bath’s Sam Burgess impressed in the 50-30 win over Gloucester in the Premiership on Saturday (Getty)

It would be stretching a point beyond the limits of elasticity to suggest that Bath’s sensational brand of rugby is inextricably linked to the arrival of the cross-coder Sam Burgess at the Recreation Ground, but the man responsible for picking the team believes the union rookie is ready to play international rugby for England as of now. Not as a centre, where the red-rose hierarchy are keen to use him, but as a back-row forward.

Burgess is confidently expected to be included in England’s training squad for the forthcoming World Cup when the national head coach Stuart Lancaster makes the first of his selection calls tomorrow: indeed, growing numbers believe his name was on the list as long ago as last autumn, when he first landed in the West Country from South Sydney. It seems the relevant question has never been “if”, but “where”.

“I think Stuart wants to take a good look at Sam on a daily basis in camp, with a view to potentially playing him in one of the World Cup warm-up games in August,” said the Bath head coach, Mike Ford – a rugby league refugee himself, albeit one of far longer standing. “He’s still learning, but the try he scored against Gloucester last weekend was a mark of the real Sam Burgess, the kind of thing I expected to see when I signed him.

“Is he ready to play the blind-side flanker role for England now? I’d say yes. There are things he can’t do just at the moment, but I take the view that you should look at the things he can do.

“During my time in the England coaching set-up” – Ford completed two tours of World Cup duty as defence strategist – “there were occasions when we looked at players the wrong way. What you’ll get with Sam is real leadership. He’s the kind of person who, in a pressure situation, will say: ‘Give me the ball.’”

Current indications are England will ignore the fact Burgess is now a full-time flanker at club level and choose him as a midfielder, especially now the Leicester centre Manu Tuilagi has put himself outside of the criminal law as well as the red-rose code of conduct.

This does not necessarily mean a more experienced man will make way: Lancaster will give himself plenty of options in this most intractable of problem positions.

The pinch points will be elsewhere. There is a logjam of wing candidates – Marland Yarde of Harlequins, Wasps’ Christian Wade, Saracens’ Chris Ashton and Semesa Rokoduguni of Bath could well be chasing two vacancies – and a serious pile-up in the back five of the scrum.

If Lancaster includes two uncapped lock-cum-flanker types, the Saracens youngster Maro Itoje and the Leicester captain Ed Slater, the outstanding blind-side specialist of the domestic campaign, Dave Ewers of Exeter, may find himself squeezed.

Selection matters are every bit as tight at Bath, who welcome Leicester to the Rec on Saturday in a sell-out Premiership semi-final. Ford, who has his captain Stuart Hooper available after injury, indicated one or more full internationals will be left out of the starting line-up. His selection at wing, scrum-half, prop and hooker will therefore be fascinating.

“We won’t change the way we prepare – we want to go out there and have some fun,” the coach said.

“But if it’s a mauling, brawling kind of game, or if the weather goes bad and we can’t play the football we like to play, I think we can win anyway. What’s happened to this team over the last 12 months has been huge.”