Sam Burgess is no stranger to Australia. The cross-code convert who spent four years in Sydney making a name for himself in rugby league knows more than most about the challenge facing England on Saturday, even if he has never taken on the Wallabies before.
In the aftermath of his side’s bruising defeat by Wales, Burgess was keeping his cards close to his chest when asked about any specific insight he had of the Australian mentality, and whether he would be providing team-mates with advice before this week’s make-or-break Pool A fixture. “I’ll probably keep that to myself and the team,” he said. “They’re very competitive, that’s in their nature.”
The England camp has closed ranks in preparation for a showdown that, while undesired from Stuart Lancaster’s perspective, should provide blockbuster entertainment at Twickenham in a game that could see the World Cup hosts depart the tournament early.
For Burgess, such failure would be disastrous, having been fast-tracked into the squad by Lancaster after spending less than a year attempting to learn the nuances of union at Bath. Whatever his future, the prospect of representing England in another home World Cup – having already done the same in league – was undoubtedly the dealbreaker when departing the NRL in 2014.
He became the star man for Russell Crowe’s South Sydney Rabbitohs during a highly successful spell, and is “good friends” with Paul Cheika, brother of the Wallabies head coach, Michael. “I know him from Sydney,” said Burgess. “He’s a friend, but it’s business this week.”
Australia are refusing to engage in any potential war of words and in many ways, Saturday’s game needs no buildup. It is the hottest ticket in town, a pool match that will shape how this tournament is remembered.
“It’s the Aussies playing England so it’s always going to be competitive. They will definitely come out of the blocks hard and fast. I know Michael Cheika and I know him pretty well, he will be getting the guys fired up,” said Burgess. “There will not be many bigger occasions than this weekend.”
In the buildup to last weekend, Burgess stoked the fires surrounding the game against Wales when he appeared to mischieviously ask who the opposition centre Scott Williams was. On Tuesday, he tweeted Williams to wish him a speedy recovery from the knee injury he suffered at Twickenham that ruled him out of the World Cup, adding: “Last week was just banter, I knew. Was just playing around with a question asked.”
Burgess’ role in Lancaster’s side was the subject of heightened debate, yet the centre had left the pitch when England began to crumble against Wales from a winning position. Lancaster’s selection for the Australia game will be under scrutiny again in the coming days, with Burgess set to revert to the substitute’s role he was asked to perform against Fiji in the opening match.
In 2013 Burgess produced a colossal display in the semi-final of the Rugby League World Cup, when England were left heartbroken following a last-gasp defeat to New Zealand at Wembley. Australia went on to win the final convincingly, but he is determined to impart some experience from that so-near campaign on home soil to his current team-mates, regardless of Lancaster’s selection this week.
“I learned that every play counts,” he said. “Every moment matters, there’s a constant flow of moments in every game and each one counts to the end result. We lost that semi-final in the last moment of the game. That’s what a lot of people look at but we had chances to close it out around 55-60 minutes. There were a couple of moments we missed. If we won those it probably would have been a different result. We’re trying to make sure every moment is as good as we can make it.
“You have to get the balance of it right. You can’t be too on edge because it will show in your performance. The main thing we have to do is perform and find whatever we need to do to get there, we can’t leave any stone unturned as a team, individuals, as coaching staff, everyone in this environment.
“Enjoy the week, enjoy the occasion and go out there and perform.”
