The NRL has ruled out using a marquee player allowance established by outgoing CEO Dave Smith to help lure back Sam Burgess as his brother Tom confirmed his treatment in rugby union after England's World Cup failure was "pushing him away" from the 15-man code.
With Burgess due to return to Bath training on Monday after being given time off to consider his future, speculation is growing that he is poised to return to South Sydney but NRL head of strategy Shane Richardson said he was not involved in any negotiations.
"I have been appointed to the RLIF board and I am here for the meeting in Paris this week," Richardson told Fairfax Media from Hull, where he had watched England take a 1-0 lead in their three Test series against the Kiwis with a
26-12 come from behind win.
"I am not here for any other reason and I am not involved in any negotiations to bring Sam Burgess back, although if I can help in any way I will."
However, Richardson said the NRL would not be contributing to Burgess's return through the use of discretionary funding for a marquee player allowance announced by Smith last year.
With last right of refusal, South Sydney are firm favourite to sign Burgess, although he is likely to receive interest from just about every other NRL club. Manly expressed an interest earlier this year after the Sea Eagles signed his brother, Luke.
Sam Burgess and Sea Eagles chief executive Joe Kelly are also close from their time at Souths.
Read more at
http://www.zerotackle.com/nrl/nrl-r...owance-for-burgess-19550/#hLosz6oG6RigItEc.99
Time to dig out the chequebook and those third party deals we have lined up and offer the deal we had for Foran to big Sam, DCE type deal could get the job done!
If it means losing some players the likes of Mateo, Starling, Symonds, Hodges and Matai so be it.
I think if we could cut all that this year or next we will have enough to get both Burgess and Bird and make room to move Knight and Demetriou into the top squad. We're onto a winner then. Bird would flawlessly replace Foran and Burgess is the Ben Kennedy character we need to win our next premiership!
