Burgess reduced to tears on Souths debut

Sunday 7th February 2010

Above: Sam Burgess speaks to the media after his Souths' debut at Redfern Oval.

By STEVE MASCORD at Redfern Oval

Sam Burgess was reduced to tears before his first game for South Sydney when club owner Russell Crowe presented him with a membership card bearing his late father's name.
England star Burgess managed a handful of big hits and a try in one of his first touches in just 20 minutes on the field as the Rabbitohs beat a Toyota Cup-strength Manly side 42-12 in the "Members Only" trial at Redfern Oval.

The 21-year-old was seen in deep conversation with actor Crowe before kick-off and was emotional as he recounted afterwards: "He did something really nice for me which I really appreciated.

"Russell's a good bloke and we're fortunate as a club to have him on board. My first game in Souths colours and he did something I'll never forget.

"It's made my day ... I don't really want to talk about it."

But rugbyleague.com can reveal that Crowe handed Burgess a South Sydney membership card with "Mark Burgess" and two of his father's favourite pieces of rugby league advice inscribed on it.

One of them was: "run at gaps, not at the man".

But Burgess had no trouble taking on the man in defence on Sunday, missing with one attempted big hit before jolting the ball from a Sea Eagles attacker's grasp with his second.
He then took an inside ball to and touched down one-handed for the bunnies' first try in the 11th minute. Manly scored first and did not cross again as the home side overpowered them with six second-half tries.

"I got a bit emotional ... it feels good, it feels like it was meant to be," said Burgess. "It's been an ambition of mine for a while to come over here and it's finally happened.

"When you have a dream to do something, you never as a kid think it's going to happen. I'm enjoying myself.

"I was a bit off in a few tackles. I've not played in three months. I expected that."

Coach John Lang said: "It was always going to be a cameo appearances for him. I don't think Sam knows how to go quiet. It was really good, I thought. I think he gave the Souths members a taste of what he can do first-hand."

Burgess is a shock call-up to the NRL All Stars side to play the Indigenous side at Skilled Park on Saturday. "It's a bit overwhelming," he said.

"There's a lot of guys in that team I'm playing with that I've been watching since I was a kid. It's pretty weird but in a good way.

"You never think you'll get the chance to play with Australian (Test) players and a few Kiwi guys as well. I'm going to try and soak up as much as I can this week and learn as much as I can from the greats of the game."

SOUTH SYDNEY 42 (S Burgess A Reynolds J Clarke B Molan J Mansour C Johnston K Pettybourne M Mundine tries A Reynolds 3 goals) beat MANLY 12 (M Jowett, P Moorwood tries; D Cherry-Evans 2 goals) at Redfern Oval. Referees: G Badger/B Suttor/L Phillips. Crowd: about 4000.