Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess set for major stand-off with their new clubs

Sam Burgess has inspired his new rugby league side to a stunning victory in his maiden game in charge.

Burgess’ Orara Valley Axemen thrashed Sawtell by 58-4 in a group two game on the NSW north coast, whilst Sam’s former South Sydney Rabbitohs’ teammate Greg Inglis helped Macksville to a brilliant 42-6 win over Nambucca Heads in another group two game on Sunday.

Burgess and Inglis will now go head to head on May 29 in what promises to be a mouthwatering tie.

“We won pretty convincingly – it was good. It was a relief,” Burgess told the Daily Telegraph. “I was pretty calm. I didn’t really know how the game was going to go because we are a new team but the guys had trained well.

“I was really happy with our defensive effort. We kept them to four points and we scrambled hard in defence when we didn’t need to because we were leading well.

“I was really happy with our spirit – the Valley is back, which is nice. It’s a really good start. It’s nice we could actually start playing. Everyone was ready to play. We’d had a few trial matches cancelled so it was just good to get off the mark.

“I’ll tell you what I was happy with, it was a full house in Sawtell, it was their home game and they had a lot of supporters there. We had a lot of fans there too which was great. There were a lot of kids at the game, it was just a great atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Inglis played a number of minutes for Macksville.

“Greg had a couple of good runs. He got shortened up on his first hit-up but he was solid and defended really well,” said Jackson Elphick, a spectator at the Macksville-Nambucca game.