Sam Burgess.

They had seen some significant interest in the market about the former Bradford Bulls player leaving Bath for Headingley.

Burgess, 27, has polarised opinion in union circles since being parachuted into Stuart Lancaster’s ill-fated World Cup campaign less than 12 months after switching codes from South Sydney.

There had been strong speculation he would return to Australia with Souths after the World Cup which ended for the hosts in embarrassing style as they were dumped out in the pool stages following Saturday’s loss to the Wallabies.

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However, there has been a surge of bets on the Dewsbury-born superstar returning to Yorkshire with treble-chasing Leeds.

Sky Bet spokesman Jordan Fiddes said: “We received a number of requests on our Twitter account for Sam Burgess to sign for Leeds Rhinos shortly before and after England lost to Australia.

“We went up originally at 8/1, then went down to 6/1 after a series of bets came in.