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

"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."