Sam Burgess hits back at Bath coach Mike Ford over failure jibe and says he is 'proud' of his time in rugby union

Burgess held a press conference at Sydney Airport upon his return to Australia after rejoining the South Sydney Rabbitohs

Sam Burgess holds a press conference at Sydney Airport (Getty Images)

Sam Burgess has hit back at Bath head coach Mike Ford after his former boss accused him of turning his back on the Aviva Premiership club because he “didn’t have the stomach” to fight for his future, instead choosing to return to rugby league with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Burgess has already moved back to Australia ahead of his NRL return following an uninspiring year in rugby union, and his move has triggered a war of words between the player himself and the Bath head coach.

But no sooner has Burgess landed Down Under than he has appeared at a Rabbitohs press conference, and immediately returned fire to the former England defence coach as well as defend his time in the 15-man game.

"I went there, I met some cool people and had a great time learning a new game," he said in a press conference at Sydney airport. "I played 20, 21 games for Bath and five games for my country in a short space of time.

"Everyone is saying that is a failure but if you saw the work that went in, the commitment to get in that position, I'm proud of what I achieved.

"Mike may be a bit upset and that's fine. What did he say? That I missed my mum? Who doesn't miss their mum? I'm not afraid to say that. Fordy is entitled to say what he wants but I think that's more a reflection on himself than me."

Burgess also claimed that he handled the drawn-out saga “extremely well” despite not being allowed to say goodbye to the Bath squad by their captain, Stuart Hooper. The lock claimed that there were certain people in the Bath changing room who would not have been welcome to Burgess’s farewell, and with the squad on a day off last Monday he did not see the point in Burgess attending the club anyway.

But Burgess, who made 27 appearances in rugby union – 21 for Bath and five for England plus one cap for the second-string Saxons side – says that his friends in both club and country squads will have understood his decision to return to rugby league.

"If I'm honest there are very few of my friends, my team-mates with both England and Bath that would question that," he said. "Percentage wise there might be one or two but it doesn't affect me too much. I think I handled myself extremely well."


 Burgess arrives in Sydney alongside his fiancée
 (Getty Images)


 Burgess arrives at a South Sydney Rabbitohs press conference on his return to Australia
 (Getty Images)


 Burgess leaves a press conference after his return to rugby league
 (Getty Images)

As the Rugby Football Union continue to dissect to dismal World Cup performance from England and recover from the embarrassing saga of seeing Burgess leave the sport, the 26-year-old Dewsbury-born forward has admitted that it was a case of going “home” in returning to the Rabbitohs, and admitted that he couldn’t see himself playing for any over club.

"I'm here for a long time now," Burgess revealed. "I love south Sydney. It was never in question really about looking elsewhere at any of the clubs. I would find it very hard to put a different shirt on. I love this club, the experience I had here over the five seasons I played was unbelievable."

He added: "I have no regrets about going, and no regrets about coming back. You have a very short space of time to play professional sport at the top level. I was going to play as a flanker in rugby union and some of the skills you need in the game I have never done in my life.

"It was going to take 18 months to nail that down and play at the top level, and by then I was going to be 28, 29. I had to weigh up what was in my heart. If it had been union I would probably have finished my career there, but I wanted to come back and finish what we had started in rugby league, in Australia, and in south Sydney."