Sam Burgess returned to Australia on Wednesday morning, landing at Sydney Airport to re-join South Sydney Rabbitohs while Bath, the rugby club he left 12 months into a three-year contract, simmered with resentment and disappointment.

Burgess' decision to quit rugby after just 21 games for Bath, and five Tests for England, has divided English Rugby opinion. But there was no division in Bath on Tuesday, with George Ford, a team-mate for club and country, saying "the lads who would die for this club sacrificed a lot for Sam when he came over and committed to him, and put time and effort into making him the player he was at the back end of last year when he was named in that World Cup squad".

Sam Burgess speaks to the media in Sydney © Getty Images

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Bath coach Mike Ford, meanwhile, said that Burgess was a man who "didn't have the stomach to see out his contract".

"This was the time to roll his sleeves up and become the player that I thought he could be -- and he chose not to," Ford snr said.

Burgess said at a press conference upon his arrival at Sydney Airport that he had "learnt a lot about rugby union" and that his different roles in the backline for England and in the forwards with Bath "improves me as an athlete all round".

"I enjoyed the sport but I think deep down rugby league gave me something different to rugby union," Burgess said. "It's not a mock of rugby union at all, because I certainly respect what the players go through, but I think personally I just play with passion and heart so the sooner I got back it was probably the best."

Burgess, meanwhile, confirmed his impression that he "was always a league player in union".

"I don't think that ever changes.

"I felt really comfortable in the environment, but it's just the perception, how you're portrayed by the media and whatever."

Burgess said that he would play for South Sydney, with whom he won the 2014 NRL premiership, "for a long time now".

"I love South Sydney. I never questioned looking elsewhere at any of the clubs. I would find it very hard to put a different shirt on."