DUAL RUGBY INTERNATIONAL Sam Burgess called his ex-club coach Mike Ford a “snake” and accused him of “sabotage” as he opened up about England’s disastrous 2015 World Cup.
Burgess, who made a high-profile switch from rugby league to union just months before the tournament, claimed former Ireland defence coach Ford used him as a pawn in a bid to become England boss.
Burgess retired last year after a glittering rugby league career, but the ill-fated World Cup campaign stands out as a low point in his career.
He said he confronted then Bath coach Ford after the World Cup, when Stuart Lancaster’s England suffered the indignity of becoming the first tournament hosts ever to crash out at the pool stage.
“I came back from the World Cup and I literally went in his office and said, ‘Hey Mike, I don’t trust you. I think you’re playing games behind my back,’” Burgess told the House of Rugby podcast.
“‘You used me as a bit of a pawn in your game of chess. I can’t put my boots on and play for you every week.’”
Burgess said Ford used his son – England out-half George – to “infiltrate” the team camp. He also said the elder Ford had stirred up stories in the media to unsettle him.
“I just think people behind the scenes were playing a deeper game,” he said.
“Mike Ford wanted the England coaching job, so his job was to try and sabotage Lancaster, and his decision-making and his coaching methods.”
He added: “I’ll never forget Mike’s face when I said to him, ‘Mike I don’t respect you any more, I really don’t. I think you’re a bit of a snake.’
“And I’ll never forget the little quiver that I got from him.”
Following Lancaster’s resignation from England in November 2015, he went on to join Leinster as a senior coach and has been deemed instrumental to the eastern province’s double Guinness Pro14 success and 2018 Heineken Champions Cup triumph during his tenure working in tandem with head coach Leo Cullen.
Full confidence in the team to perform very well for the rest of the tournament!
@Jasper Conroy: Really???
2007 comparisons are lazy. We hammered Scotland in our first match. People seem to have completely forgotten that.
11 points from a possible 15 after 3 games. Not a bad return at all. Time to get behind the team and stop the moaning. #COYBIG
Some load of negative tosspots in the media. Same goons who downplayed the grand slams, dismissed wins over NZ/SA and cheered for Racing over Leinster are now delighted. It’s like they are in competition to be the new Tom Humphries.
The social media campaigns from the sponsors are grating, but they always are no matter the sport or team.
It never ceases to amaze me how the commentators/pundits swing, we beat a poor Scotland and we are set for a quater final against SA no account taken of Japan who should be tier one nation and who accounted for SA in 2015, who are also hosting. We then put 35 points on Russia get the bonus point and Eddie is not satisfied, the same Eddie who presided over the debacle of 2007 in FRANCE. Give this squad a break and get behind then nothing is to be gained from negativity. Bestie and the Boys Abú
Just 22 points and one try conceded in 3 games is a very healthy stat .
@Limón Madrugada:
“Just 22 points and one try conceded in 3 games”
And we scored 11 tries to 1 conceded :: if we stated that before the WC we would have been happy :: but in that, there was 1 loss !!!!!!
Yeah the negativity is getting to me also. Can we do a bit of analysis on the positives? Also aside from Samoa game we probably won’t go into another game as favourites no matter how far we go in the tournament and that is just fine by me. That’s where the Irish pysche is more comfortable and more dangerous. I hope we play well against Samoa and get the result needed to put pressure on Japan and then we put the fear of God into our opponents in the quarters!
@Brian O’Driscoll: have to agree, finally watched the Russia game. There was a lot of good variation in attack which ended with a poor handling error or a Russian infringement (often not penalised – for Henderson’s knock on over the line, it was actually good Russian D but the 7 knocked on in the preceding ruck). The evidence is there that Ireland are about to kick on. Everyone would take a loss in the group if it meant peaking at QF stage and you can see Ireland are starting to ramp it up.
Hugh Cahill’s and Donal Lenihan’s rugby commentary is also very poor and schizophrenic. The keyboard warriors and Ed O Sullivan’s of this world will be the biggest fans when we put Samoa to the sword by at least 30 points. COYBIG
@Brian O’Driscoll:
@Brian O’Driscoll: have to agree. I finally watched the Russia game and the evidence is there that they are beginning to vary their attacking play which often ended with an error or Russian infringement. They played good ball. Russia was not the game to correct the Japan loss. What good would it be to go out and put 70 on Russia. It’s better they tried to evolve the game. No one wants 4 pool wins if it means a QF loss. I can see Ireland ramping up their game plan ahead of a QF showdown and surprised others who are professionals in the game don’t see it.
People like Ed O Sullivan and the keyboard warriors who think the Russian game was the game to correct the woes of the Japan loss are fools. The time to do it is at the QF.
We’ll put 30 on Samoa.
I’m sick to the back teeth of all the negativity. The final straw for me was Sean Farrell on the42′s rugby podcast yesterday moaning that Ireland’s first try against Russia was an old Joe Schmidt strike move. Some people will always find something negative to say.
Completely down to the players themselves, their mind set, body language, which to date hasn’t been great.
They’ve done it before so they can up it again.
Ah Martin you should know more than anyone that negativity does nothing for any teak.
Team that is