Sam Burgess believes England 2015 World Cup campaign undermined by Mike Ford

Sam Burgess believes England’s ill-fated World Cup campaign in 2015 was undermined by Mike Ford, then his head coach at Bath, and that he was used as a “pawn” to “sabotage” Stuart Lancaster.

Burgess has also revealed that George Ford stopped speaking to him in the build-up to the crucial pool match against Wales that England lost 28-25 before exiting their home tournament with defeat by Australia.

In a candid and comprehensive interview on the House of Rugby podcast, Burgess said that he rang Eddie Jones four years later to advise the Australian about how to avoid a similarly disastrous campaign in Japan.

According to Burgess, who was selected for England’s World Cup squad just over 18 months after arriving in the 15-a-side code from South Sydney Rabbitohs as an NRL champion, “politics” took hold when he was selected to start at inside centre to face Wales, with George Ford dropping to the bench.

“I just felt that people behind the scenes were playing a deeper game,” Burgess explained.  “I think the biggest thing was that Mike Ford wanted the England coaching job.

“With George being his son, I think that infiltrated into the camp. After me starting against Wales, my relationship with George completely changed. He wouldn’t talk to me.

“We lost, fell out of the World Cup and that’s when I went back to Bath and I couldn’t sit in the same room as Mike. I had to tell him I couldn’t play for him anymore [because] I’d lost respect for him.”

In conversation with co-hosts Alex Payne and James Haskell, a former England colleague, Burgess voiced his frustration with Mike Ford’s public insistence that Burgess would remain in the back row for Bath, who reached the 2015 Premiership final, regardless of his exploits with England.

Burgess also questioned why George Ford, who replaced him with 70 minutes gone and England leading 25-18, had been brought on at all against Wales.

After the World Cup, Burgess told Mike Ford, now defence coach at Leicester Tigers, that he felt “like a pawn” in Ford’s “game of chess”. He subsequently secured a return to South Sydney.

Burgess, who announced his retirement from rugby league last October at the age of 30 due to complications with a shoulder injury, now coaches defence as part of a varied backroom role at South Sydney and works as an NRL pundit.