George Burgess reveals brother nearly joined surprise Super League side

Despite the fact they are British the legacy of the Burgess brothers is predominately in the NRL.

Luke Burgess won a Grand Final with Leeds Rhinos in 2009, Sam and Tom of course pulled up trees at Bradford Bulls prior to their move to the NRL and George Burgess had a stint at Wigan Warriors.

However, they are remembered for their time at South Sydney and Sam is still coaching there whilst Tom is playing there despite admitting he would like a move to Super League especially boyhood club Leeds Rhinos.

But speaking on James Graham’s The Bye Round, George revealed that his twin nearly join Wigan Warriors instead of making the move to the NRL.

“He’s showed the longevity and his body has helped up pretty well. He’s the most capped forward for South Sydney which is pretty impressive,” George said.

“I remember the phone call when we were trying to get him over here in 2012. I was in hospital actually.

“He was looking at signing at Wigan at the time. He had Radlinski in his ear and he got a way less offer at Souths but I just said ‘you’ve just got to come, take the chance’ and he did .

“He wasn’t playing first grade straight away and he was pretty angry at that because he was lined up for a spot in Wigan’s first team straight away, and I think they won the comp that year as well 2013.

“But we all played together in 2013 and we had such a good year, we were really unlucky not to make the Grand Final and I think the next year was obviously unbelievable.

“Those two years of ’13 and ’14 when we all played together were really specials looking back now.

“Sam obviously went and played rugby union in 2015 and messed it up and Luke got sacked for being an idiot and went to Manly.

“We always thought it would last longer than it did, especially in ’13 when we started playing together. ‘Oh we could do this for 10 years’ and then it just sort of stopped all of a sudden.

“I think Sam came back after his stint in rugby union then we had a little taste of it again, but with Luke not being there it just wasn’t the same. We had some good memories at South Sydney and it’s good to see Tommy is still flying the flag.”