Following the conclusion of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Lancaster, along with his assistant coaches and the RFU, were particularly severely criticised for their handling of Rugby League convert, Sam Burgess. Lancaster had selected Burgess to play for England as a centre, despite Burgess being developed as a flanker by his club Bath, and despite Burgess's relative inexperience, having only played 17 games for his club. Lancaster's selection appeared to be inconsistent with some of his previously stated principles, that he would select players based on form, and that he would not select outsiders, such as English players based in the Top 14, in part because it might unsettle players who had been in the England squad for a number of seasons. Burgess left Rugby Union to return to Rugby League shortly after the conclusion of the Rugby World Cup. Mike Ford, Burgess's coach at Bath, later stated that he felt Burgess would have stayed in Rugby Union had he not been picked in England's World Cup squad.