Latest twist in Burgess saga can’t be ignored

THE controversy surrounding Sam Burgess, the Rugby League maestro who took to Rugby Union like a fish to concrete but still found his way into England’s squad for the home World Cup in 2015, should be yesterday’s news. Yet the updates keep on coming.

Those of us who, try as we might at the time, could not think of anyone who had ever done less to earn an England shirt, were more than a little intrigued by the latest development, which hit the public prints just a few days ago.

Matt Banahan, a Red Rose back at the equally ill-fated 2011 global gathering and a clubmate of Burgess at Bath, was reported as saying that the newcomer told his West Country colleagues that he switched to Union after a Twickenham insider had dangled the carrot of a World Cup place as a centre.

As we know, this carefully-laid plan – if that is what it was – went breasts-up when Bath discovered

their lavishly-remunerated recruit could not easily be mistaken for Mike Gibson or Tim Horan and plonked him in the pack instead.

For reasons best known to themselves, Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell, the prime movers and

shakers in the England coaching set-up, saw it differently and dug in their heels. We know the rest.

Lancaster, such a resourceful figure in so many ways and an unusually gracious man into the bargain, believed what he believed. Some of us thought he was barking, but as he was the man in charge, he was more than entitled to his opinion.

If, however, someone from the RFU offered a guarantee of selection before the event, that’s a very different story. We should be told, one way or another, but don’t hold your breath.