Ian Ritchie says RFU has no regrets over Sam Burgess
Wednesday 11 November 2015 19:01, UK
The RFU has no reason to be embarrassed about Sam Burgess' short-lived stay in rugby union, according to Ian Ritchie.
Burgess is back in rugby league just 12 months and one high-profile World Cup selection after arriving at Bath from South Sydney Rabbitohs.
His departure - with two years of his Bath deal still to run - led World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward to claim the RFU is now "the laughing stock of world rugby".
And on Tuesday Stuart Lancaster, whose decision to pick Burgess in his squad and then his starting line-up continues to divide opinion, lost his job as England head coach.
But Ritchie insists Lancaster's departure was "not at all" directly linked to Burgess' situation and says the convert was treated correctly throughout his union spell.
Everybody can have a view on whether it was the right or the wrong call to select him, but I don't see what else could have happened during that process and I feel no embarrassment at all
"I don't find the Sam Burgess situation in any way embarrassing," he said. "We had one of the leading rugby league players in the world wanting to come and play rugby union, and I think that was a positive.
"We were delighted that he wanted to come and delighted that he came. We did not pay a sum of money for Sam Burgess to come to rugby union and there was no insistence from Stuart, or anyone else at the RFU, that he had to be picked.
"He came here because he wanted to. He was trained and coached, as far as the RFU was concerned, in absolutely the right way. Obviously one's disappointed that he's chosen to go back, but that has to be a matter for him.
"Sam made that contribution and his selection for the squad was made on the basis of rugby, and that was the selection made by the head coach.
"And clearly he made his decision for the reasons he has outlined, which was outside of my control, so I do not see and I do not understand how the RFU could have done anything different from what we did.
"Everybody can have a view on whether it was the right or the wrong call to select him, but I don't see what else could have happened during that process and I feel no embarrassment at all about what happened with Sam Burgess."
