'People ask about my time at Bath, I f**king hated it. It was s**t'
New Leicester signing Freddie Burns has doubled down on the criticisms of his time at Bath, revisiting his unfulfilled three-year stint at The Rec in an interview in the latest edition of the Rugby Journal. It was in May 2020 when the ex-England out-half initially laid bare his frustrations at Bath prior to his one-year switch to Japan. “I don’t really know,” he told RugbyPass 16 months ago when asked why his face didn’t seem to fit under Stuart Hooper and Todd Blackadder, the Bath directors of rugby he worked under.
“That is probably the biggest frustration. With Bath, I sat in endless meetings where the talk was about wanting homegrown talent, people from the city. I sat in meetings where they talked about how we have not scored tries in a game, and I have sat in endless meetings this year where it was said our attack had let us down yet I didn’t seem to get given an opportunity.
“I don’t know whether I dug my own grave by dropping that ball against Toulouse (in October 2018) and it’s something the coaches have held against me, I don’t know. That was the frustrating thing for me, the fact that I don’t know quite what I have done to warrant not getting an opportunity. I stepped in at full-back a lot this year and thought I played well. It’s hard for me. I have got to bite my tongue a little bit but it’s very hard to piece together why I have been given such a lack of opportunity.
“I’d sit and watch games where I felt like I could have a good influence and it seemed I was left on the bench until Bath had taken it to a score where a team couldn’t come back or a team scoring so that we couldn’t come back. Then it was ‘alright, Freddie, get your trousers off, you can go on now’.
“I wasn’t too happy with the game time I got under Todd either,” continued Burns about his Bath experience. “There were times at the back end of Todd’s reign where I went in and pretty much begged him for game time, so I actually thought the change of management was going to be very good for me.
https://twitter.com/JournalRugby/status/1438419097658793985
“I sort of felt Hoops [Hooper] rated me but obviously that proved to be completely different. Like I say, it’s one of those things, it’s people’s opinions. These coaches are paid to make these decisions and the decisions just didn’t go in my favour. I don’t really hold any bitterness towards Bath. I’ll talk honestly about how I felt and my frustrations, but it’s just the way sport is now. You just move on.”
Burns most certainly has moved on, spending a season in Japan before agreeing to a deal last March that has taken him back to Leicester, the club he was with for three seasons prior to his 2017 switch to Bath. His latest team is due to meet Bath on November 5 at Tigers, with a rematch at The Rec to follow in mid-February, and it sounds like the 31-year-old would like nothing better than to play at his best in those two matches.
“People ask me about my time at Bath, I f**king hated it. It was s**t,” said Burns in the latest edition of the coffee-table Rugby Journal which also carries lengthy interviews with Adam Radwan, Shaunagh Brown, Simon Middleton and takes a look at Nottingham’s fight for survival. “Do you know what I mean? I got sent off on debut, I dropped the ball against Toulouse and I hardly f**kin’ played. Of course, I didn’t like it.
“Bath was a chance for me to put on my hometown shirt and all that sort of stuff. And I am respectful towards the people there but to be honest with you, I don’t feel like I got treated particularly well by the coaching staff in terms of the honesty that I feel like you should be given as a player for how hard you work. This isn’t me getting my violin out and being like, ‘Everyone feel sorry for me’. It’s just the truth, how I feel.
“I needed Japan more than I thought. It really ignited the excitement in me and changed my perspective on life and rugby. I was being frozen out at Bath. I was training hard but not getting the rewards for it. I won’t have been the only player feeling like that – there are players who don’t even make the matchday 23 and I don’t know how they do it. But I was a bit demoralised, a bit fed up.
“I was stuck on the bench,” continued Burns, who ironically begins the new Premiership season for Leicester sitting on their bench behind George Ford for Saturday’s opener versus Exeter. “In my last season at Bath, I only played once as a starting No10 in the Premiership, which kind of tells you everything you need to know, so I told my agent maybe it’s time to change it up.”
"With those two situations, I was staring down the barrel of not being able to play pro rugby again"
– From club redundancy and a stroke to playing for England is the remarkable backstory of RAF recruit @JoshJMcNally who tells @heagneyl ??? all about it ?https://t.co/LT6213Y87y
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 12, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Good to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
16 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
16 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
16 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
16 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
16 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
16 Go to comments