Sam Burgess: ‘The bottom line is that my heart didn’t lie in union’ | Donald McRae

The England captain talks about his greatest moment in rugby league, his friendships with Stuart Lancaster and Owen Farrell and the way some of his union team-mates hid behind the media glare on him at the 2015 World Cup“They had to completely shatter my socket,” Sam Burgess says as, pointing at his x-rayed skull, his finger circles the black hollow of his right eye. Staring down at the image on his phone, Burgess relives the surgery that followed his greatest triumph when he played almost the entire 2014 Grand Final in Australia’s National Rugby League with a fractured cheekbone. The injury d…