Richard Bath reckons that Sam Burgess may be the answer to England’s World Cup prayers.
RICHARD BATH IS AN AWARD- WINNING WRITER BASED IN THE UK.
THERE WERE a whole raft of lessons dispensed by the All Blacks during England’s recent tour to the Land of the Long White Cloud. However, if there was one conclusion above all else from their foray to the deep south, it’s that the single biggest hole in their armoury is the lack of a genuinely world class inside centre.
Stuart Lancaster has less than a year to solve this thorny problem before the game’s show- piece spectacle kicks off with England’s tricky World Cup opener against Fiji on 18 September 2015.
So it’s little wonder that Sam Burgess is being treated by large sections of the English rugby public as something of a messiah, the man who can do for the men in white what Sonny Bill once did for the boys in black.
As soon as word of the rugby league player’s impending arrival at Bath on a three- year contract leaked out, the hype began. For once, however, this particular player’s ability to change games and turn losers into winners isn’t a figment of Fleet Street’s fevered imagination.
Anyone who has watched the 25- yearold South Sydney Rabbitoh play will be in no doubt that Burgess is the real deal. His nickname – Slammin Sam – tells the story. Standing 1.94m and weighing in at 110kg, during his time as a forward with the Rabbitohs, he has displayed a physicality, athleticism and intensity which have impressed even the most jaundiced NRL watchers.
He has it all: arguably the most aggressive defence in the NRL, an uncanny ability to break defences and cross the gainline at every turn, a ferocious work ethic and an acute tactical brain. As Steve McNamara, his coach when he played at the Bradford Bulls, said, he’s the ultimate physical specimen.
Yet the lad who emerged out of Yorkshire’s West Riding has much more to offer England than just his physical attributes, impressive though those undoubtedly are. Former coaches and playing colleagues of Burgess’s talk of his teak- tough mental approach, and of a man who is a born leader. It is those attributes which Lancaster has said he covets even more than Burgess’s freakish physical gifts.
England could do with such mental and defensive discipline in midfield. Whether it’s Eastmond, Luther Burrell or Billy Twelvetrees, all have looked vulnerable at the top level, as has Manu Tuilagi, whose ability to wreak havoc with the ball in hand is not matched by his tactical acumen and positional sense when the opposition have the pill. With his appreciation of defensive systems inbuilt from his time in league, Burgess will bring a solidity that has been missing from England’s soft centre in the biggest games.
He will also, if McNamara is to be believed, help imbue England with a grittiness and team spirit, just as he did with the England rugby league team in the last World Cup when he was their standout player and talisman. “Sam is a tremendous person,” said McNamara. “He’s an energiser - he brings energy to any group. He has a great personality, a strong personality, is very strong minded and strong willed. He is a great carer of other people. He will be a big asset to Bath Rugby and, hopefully, England.”
Bath coach Mike Ford put it more succinctly: “Sam has an invaluable capacity to drag teams along with him.”
If Burgess has a maturity beyond his years, it has been hard- won. When he made his Super League debut as a teenager, he was also helping to care for his terminally ill father Mark, a former rugby league player and coach suffering from motor neurone disease, Mark Burgess died when he was 45 and his son Sam was just 17.
It was, Burgess has said, a stage of his life that toughened him up mentally and gave him the determination to take the plunge and move to Australia to improve himself as a player. His three brothers later joined the Rabbitohs, but when Burgess initially went, it was defiantly under his own steam.
“His dad’s death made him a man,” says McNamara. “His maturity was beyond his years. He was going through a really tough period of his life, which tells you a bit about his tremendous character, to come through this adversity and be both a great player and a great person.
“He came through it with a tremendous amount of credit. It was beyond belief what he did.”
In Australia, never the most Pom- friendly environment, his new teammates soon agreed with the verdict of England skipper Kevin Sinfield, who said of Burgess: “He’s absolutely, without
doubt, one of the best players I’ve ever worked with – top player, top bloke.”
They also saw a guy who was comfortable in his own skin: when actor Russell Crowe, the part- owner of the Rabbitohs and the man who invited Burgess onto the set of Robin Hood and persuaded him to move to Sydney, presented him with his club membership card bearing his dad’s name in the dressing room before his debut, Burgess unashamedly burst into tears in front of his teammates.
Playing for a big club in a big city has also prepared Burgess for what is sure to be a fraught introduction to English rugby, which will be littered with unrealistic expectations.
No country has a tall poppy syndrome to match that of the English, but Burgess is big enough and tough enough to cope. Thanks to his time with the Rabbitohs and his celebrity Down Under, he is used to the big time and resolutely unfazed by the attention. In Australia, his profile was so stellar that he and his latest high- profile girlfriend were as likely to appear in the gossip columns as on the back pages. Yet he’s no Danny Cipriani; if he plays hard in his social life, he plays even harder in his professional sphere.
There are issues, however, primarily around where he plays his rugby and whether he will be sufficiently well atuned to the nuances of the union code to cope at the very top level.
Despite the preference of Bath coach Mike Ford to eventually play him in the back row ( Burgess’s friend, Waratahs skipper and back rower Dave Dennis, says he’ll end up at No 8), the first of those concerns seems to have been settled already.
Burgess himself is keen to play inside centre, England are keen for him to play at inside centre and Bath have been persuaded to fall into line. He will play his club rugby between Ford’s precociously talented fly- half son George and former League player Eastmond.
But it is the example of Sonny Bill Williams, another NRL forward who found glory playing as a centre in union, which has proved the biggest inspiration for Burgess.
Indeed, he spent a long time talking to the Kiwi before making the decision to move. Burgess has made no secret of the fact that he changed codes with the express intention of making England’s XV for next year’s World Cup on home soil, and in that he must surely have had one eye on Williams, who made such a dramatic impact for the All Blacks following his switch from league.
“We talked over in England during the World Cup,” said Burgess. “I admire Sonny and what he has achieved. If I can get anywhere near what Sonny has achieved I’ll be pretty happy.”
Nor has the similarity between the two been lost on anyone. As far back as 2006, the day after the 17- year- old Burgess made his Bradford Bulls debut, Shontayne Hape, the Kiwi League convert who ended up winning 13 caps in England’s centres in 2010- 2011, said: “I reckon he’s going to be Great Britain’s Sonny Bill. He’s going to be one of the best.”
Few people have paused to consider whether Burgess will make a good combination with Tuilagi. While it would certainly be one of the most bruising and formidable partnerships in world rugby, it flies in the face of the All Black penchant for a good distributor playing the second- five role. Nevertheless, given England’s forward strength and Burgess’s ability to burst his way through the gainline ( much like his likely pool opponent, Wales’s Jamie Roberts), it would virtually guarantee their pack forward momentum. Tuilagi has also demonstrated an ability to finish off the sort of tasty offloads that would flow from Burgess’s nimble hands.
The subject of whether Burgess can possibly be ready for next year’s World Cup has already created some argument.
Jeremy Guscott has already argued both sides of the case, but Lancaster has worked hard to play down expectations and former England skipper Lewis Moody reckons the World Cup is “far too soon” for the big league convert.
With Bath competing in Europe throughout December and January, there is surely, however, time for Burgess to at the very least press a case to be included in England’s Six Nations squad, if only to come off the bench for the experience.
My gut feeling is that England will start the World Cup with Burgess in situ. Those that vehemently suggest otherwise ignore several factors: the Sonny Bill precedent, England’s problems in this key position, Burgess’s iron will and the palpable desire of England’s fans to see him in place.
His involvement cannot yet be a done deal, but I’d place plenty of cash on him facing Fiji in less than a year’s time.