Perhaps it is fitting that in the year that IMG presses on with plans to make Super League more appealing, the competition has been graced with arguably the most high-profile, headline-grabbing coaching appointment it has ever seen.
Of course, this wasn’t supposed to be the plan for Sam Burgess. He turned 35 only a couple of months ago and as recently as several years ago, would have likely laughed had you told him he would have been tasked with transforming the fortunes of Warrington Wolves in 2024.
But a chronic shoulder injury ended his glittering playing career prematurely, forcing the finest British rugby league player of his generation down a new avenue much earlier than expected.
The four years between his retirement and this moment have not been quiet. There have been well-documented problems away from the rugby field, a return to the NRL club where he made his name as a player, South Sydney, as an assistant coach before reports of a fallout with the head coach, Jason Demetriou, led to him walking away last year. All of a sudden Burgess is the youngest head coach in the professional game at the club where there is perhaps the most pressure to succeed, given that Warrington have not won a league title since the 1950s.
“I certainly wouldn’t have picked this as what would have happened this year,” he says. “It’s happened quickly but I don’t mind that, I like being thrown in at the deep end. There’s been some good times and some harder times out there and everything is under a microscope, so there’s always pressure. The pressure can sometimes be 10-fold [in Australia] and there are a lot of similarities here at Warrington.”
Transitioning out of life as a player for Burgess was, by his own admission, a difficult process. After all, playing rugby is all he has known since emerging in Super League as a prodigious teenager with Bradford Bulls in the mid-2000s.
He had not even made his professional debut when his teammates were publicly tipping him to be the next Sonny Bill Williams. He concedes it has taken some time to process that he can no longer play the game he loves.
“I realised last year that I’m retired now, it took me three years to figure that out,” he says. “I coached in the country leagues in Australia and almost played there, which would have been a huge mistake. You still think you can play. I jumped in last year at Souths and tore my hammy, and that was the moment when I realised it was time to stop, and time to start focusing on coaching. I love the game so much, I’ve been obsessed with it from birth to now, so giving it up was never easy – but coaching is the next best thing.”
Burgess returns to English rugby league for the first time since leaving in 2009. From the minute his Warrington side begin their Super League campaign against Catalans next Saturday, there will be plenty waiting to judge how he performs. He insists that whatever the outcome in the short term, he will draw on the lessons he has learned on and off the field to shape the way he handles his first stint as a head coach.
“I know I’m only 35 but from 15 to 35, the last 20 years, there’s been a lot crammed in,” he says. “The good, bad and the ugly. I’ve been right at the top, right at the bottom and in the middle for a long time. I’ve got a lot of life experience, and you learn a lot about yourself in those moments. I can share a lot of it, it’s helped me stay calm. I’m pretty balanced so every bit of experience I’ve gathered over the last 20 years has shaped the way I will coach.”
He has wasted little time trying to make his mark on a squad that again underachieved in 2023, limping to a sixth-placed finish. In a clear insight into his character, the traditional warm-weather training camp was ditched for an excursion at an army base to test his players’ mental resolve.
Burgess forced them to give up their phones, sleep in tents and each run 70km – almost 45 miles – in 30 hours. He ran almost the entire distance alongside them. “I wanted to see their character when they’re under duress,” he says, smiling. “You can strip back the egos and bravados and I think I know the team better now. Hopefully it’ll pay us back somewhere down the line.”
Burgess admits that with two young children in Australia, his long-term future may well be coaching in the NRL. But for now, the challenge of steering Warrington to a first league title since 1955 has reignited the fire inside him after a turbulent few years. “I’m here for two years at least and really enjoying what we’re doing,” he says. “Is two years long enough to implement what I want? I don’t know.” He will get the answer to that question soon enough as he begins a new chapter in the sport that has given him everything.
