Warrington Wolves

Pundit claims Sam Burgess “felt wronged” as tunnel clash with Richie Myler is explained

by
Sam Cook
May 4, 2024

Warrington Wolves defeated Hull FC last night to go joint-top of Super League but it was the battle off the field that captured the attention as Sam Burgess and Richie Myler had a post-match altercation.

Both relatively new to their jobs, Sam Burgess and Richie Myler weren’t for backing down with Hull FC’s pre-match decision to not allow Warrington their eighth interchange causing Burgess to rant post-match.

The situation was a complicated and unclear one but in it’s simplest form, Warrington’s teamsheet was incorrectly filed meaning that Adam Holroyd wasn’t on the official RFL teamsheet.

As such, Warrington were then deducted one of their eight interchanges for the error, something that Hull FC could have prevented but chose not to.

That led to Sam Burgess ranting in his post-match interview with Sky Sports before then clashing with Richie Myler in the tunnel, the Warrington head coach arguing that FC’s decision put player safety at risk.

What did Sam Burgess say in his post-match interview?

Credit: Imago Images

Speaking about the fact his side were without their eighth and final interchange, Sam Burgess told Sky Sports: “We’ve got to get it right. We talk about concussions and protecting our players and tonight we failed. Someone needs to be held accountable for that.

“We had a choice to make before the game and we didn’t make the right choice for the players,” alluding to Hull FC’s failure to overlook the team sheet error.

That animated response from Burgess captured the attention of Sky Sports’ presenter Brian Carney who noted that it was out of character from the typically calm character that has been evident through Warrington’s first nine games of Super League.

Carney noted: “I was about to ask you questions about how composed and controlled he is in interviews but that last final question from Jenna about the interchange disagreement at the start of the game, well that’s gotten us a little bit closer to the Sam Burgess that we love on the field.”

The host then put forward his understanding of the situation too, explaining: “He wasn’t happy with that. From what I can understand, a mistake has been made, whether that’s on the Warrington side or not is unclear, in submitting a list of the 21-man squad that didn’t include Adam Holroyd’s name.

“They then identified the mistake, went to Hull FC and said, ‘Are you okay if we include Adam Holroyd? to which they said, ‘No’.”

“Can you blame Hull FC?” – Pundits react to decision that led to tunnel clash

Credit: Imago Images

Hull FC were technically well within their rights to enforce the ruling that Warrington should have one of their interchanges deducted. Only earlier this season Salford Red Devils lost an interchange ahead of their clash with Castleford Tigers.

What Sam Burgess was arguing was that it was a clear admin error and Hull FC, seemingly on Richie Myler’s say-so, refused to overlook it.

Former England teammate of Burgess, Jon Wlkin explained: “Sam Burgess is about respect, about honesty and about integrity. I think what he’s saying is he would like to be treated in the same way as he would treat the Hull FC.

“He was almost admitting there that if Hull FC had got that wrong, he would have let them have that substitution. Hull FC are desperate though.

“If he’s asked Richie Myler and they’ve said no, then can you blame them?”

Reacting specifically to the incident in the tunnel, which can be seen in the attached post at the bottom of the article, Wilkin deemed the emotions that fuelled the incident “part of the entertainment” of sport.

The footage saw Myler refuse to move from Burgess’ way, to which the former prop forward just steamed straight through the full-back, knocking Myler off balance.

Wilkin argued: “Sport is about passion, right? We always want people to be passionate and passion overflows. It’s emotional, everybody’s emotional in life.

“That overspills at times. Sam was emotional. Richie was going to be emotional during his career. We shouldn’t erase emotion out of sport and discredit it because it’s part of the entertainment.”

“I think he’s a man of his principle, you know, it’s how he plays, it’s who he is. I just think he’s felt wronged by his situation. Now, we don’t have the details, we can’t criticise either man as we weren’t in the conversation.

“He’s asked to have a fair crack and have his full amount of substitutions. He believes his players’ welfare has been compromised by a poor decision from Hull FC.”