Sam Burgess has called out Rob Andrew as the continued gripe between the pair rumbles on following the former RFU director’s claims that his selection contributed to England’s failure at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
In his new book, Andrew claims that Burgess’s selection caused a ‘negative effect’ on the squad as Stuart Lancaster’s men failed to make it out of the group stages at their own World Cup.
And the former fly-half has continued to detail the impact he believed choosing a rugby league convert — who had never played a game of rugby union before his switch to Bath in 2014 — for rugby’s showpiece event had on the team’s misfire.
Rob Andrew continued to lay blame on Sam Burgess’s 2015 World Cup selection
‘I think there’s been a lot of focus on the one page (of the book) on Sam Burgess – there’s a lot of other stuff around the World Cup,’ Andrew told BBC Breakfast.
‘I think the issue was, and my big comment around it, is that head coaches get judged on their results and they have to make decisions around selection and Sam Burgess was a massive decision. And it’s not just blaming Sam, it wasn’t Sam’s fault that he was picked to play for England.
‘But it changed the dynamic of that squad going into a World Cup and head coaches live or die by the decisions they take – and we didn’t get out of our group in a home World Cup.
‘It was a massive risk, a massive decision Stuart took and it didn’t pay off.
‘He (Lancaster) did such a lot of good work and then a few decisions — and in the biggest tournament in our sport — went wrong in a home World Cup.’
Burgess, who spoke out in the immediate aftermath of Andrew’s book release, again voiced his frustration after the comments made on Breakfast.
‘I think Rob Andrew should pick up the phone and call me,’ the South Sydney Rabbitohs star said on Twitter.