Burns got into coach’s bad books after US trip

BUT FLY-HALF WON BACK HIS PLACE AND WAS HERO AT TWICKENHAM

FREDDIE Burns revealed a pivotal training session this season at Leicester Tigers after receiving a ticking off from Steve Borthwick for an ill-advised mid-season trip to America.

Tigers had won all eight of their Gallagher Premiership games to begin the season in style, followed by a pair of Premiership Rugby Cup wins before enjoying their first bye week, courtesy of the division having 13 teams, in late November.

Burns, who started three games at full-back and made four substitute appearances in the opening block of league games, took the opportunity to hop aboard a plane bound for Tennessee, before Tigers resumed training.

However, their charismatic back was unable to participate.

“My head was fully gone,” he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.

“I went to Nashville on the p*** for a week. I come back, two days after coming back, I tested positive for Covid. So I missed Bordeaux away and Quins at home.

“I come back, train for a couple of days, I get the start against Connacht at home, and honestly I was terrible. I tried a banana kick, put it straight out on the full, I was all over the shop, I was absolutely terrible.

“Steve dropped me for the Bristol game on Boxing Day.

“Eventually, he just said you’ve f ***** up, going to Nashville, you shouldn’t have gone, got Covid, whatever.”

Without Burns, Tigers kept their winning run going, edging past Harlequins in front of a sellout Mattioli Woods Welford Road crowd before kicking off their Heineken Champions Cup campaign with a 16-13 win away in France.

The Connacht game that followed presented Burns with his first opportunity to start at flyhalf for the club since 2017 and he was replaced by Guy Porter 11 minutes after half-time in a move that saw Bryce Hegarty switch from 15 to 10.

The impact of the bench proved pivotal as Leicester came from behind to record a 29-23 victory.

“I was fuming, properly fuming,” Burns told the podcast, which is co-hosted by his former Gloucester team-mate Mike Tindall.

“Next thing you know, I’m at a training session at DMU, defending at 10 – Tinds you know me, I’ve never taken a gumshield out to training with me in my life, but I took my gum shield, my shoulder pads, a scrum hat.

“I chopped Nemzy Nadolo maybe two or three times, I’ve never been more prepared to get a concussion in all my career.

“I was like I am going to leave the pitch in a bodybag, I was fuming.”

Burns responded by winning back the

10 shirt for the return game against Connacht in January, helping steer Tigers to a thrilling away win and, in February, a haul of 55 points saw him claim the Premiership’s player of the month award.

He appeared from the bench in both the first half of the semifinal win over Northampton Saints and the final against Saracens, when he landed a last-minute drop goal, above, to clinch Tigers’ 11th Premiership title win and their first in nine years.