Bath expect Sam Burgess to stay in union amid links with rugby league return

Bath head coach Mike Ford has said that he is adamant Sam Burgess will remain a rugby union player amid reports that he could seek a return to rugby league.

Super League champions Leeds Rhinos and Burgess's former team South Sydney Rabbitohs have expressed an interest in signing the centre if he were to become available, but Ford is confident that his time as a union player will not be short-lived.

"Yes we expect Sam to stay," PA quotes Ford as saying. "He has got two years left on his contract."

Burgess switched codes to play union for Bath last year and was part of the England side that recently went out in the group stage of its own World Cup, the first host nation to do so.

Leeds claimed today that they have alerted Bath of their interest, but Ford responded by saying that he had heard nothing from the Rhinos.

He added: "I've just been told about the Leeds story. It's all speculation because I've not heard anything about that."

Burgess, 26, is under contract with Bath until October 2017.