The row over Sam Burgess’s England career has now lasted longer than Sam Burgess’s England career

Time to let it go, lads.

You've all made mistakes, so let's just be man enough to admit that and get on with your lives. That's the mature option. Or you could go the other way. Sam Burgess is back in Sydney with his friends, his family and his beloved South Sydney Rabbitohs, but back in Blighty he left behind some pissed off rugby union folk. Bath coach Mike Ford (previously his biggest fan) said he "didn't have the stomach" to honour his contract with the Premiership club, while Ford's son George suggested Burgess may be afraid of hard work. The erstwhile England centre (five Tests) today held a press conference in Australia, in which he responded to the various Ford accusations.

"I went there, I met some cool people and had a great time learning a new game. "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."

Speaking in Sydney Airport, Burgess said he had no regrets following his code switch, which saw him leave a £500,000 per annum contract after less than a year.

"I have no regrets about going, and no regrets about coming back," he said. "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 was 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." He said: "If I'm honest there are very few of my friends, my team-mates with both England and Bath that would question that. “Percentage wise there might be one or two but it doesn't affect me too much. I think I handled myself extremely well. "I'm here for a long time now," he added. "I love south Sydney. It was never in question really about looking elsewhere at any of the clubs.I love this club, the experience I had here over the five seasons I played was unbelievable."

There we go, Sam Burgess has had the last word in the Sam Burgess row. Yeah right.