Remembering Rob Burrow: How a Rugby League Legend was born

For Rugby League fans of my generation, it is impossible to imagine the sport without Rob Burrow. He was a crucial part of the all-conquering Leeds Rhinos side, and the reason why so many people fell in love with the game.

Born in Pontefract in 1982, Burrow was never meant to make it in Rugby League. At five feet, five inches tall, received wisdom suggests that he would be too small to be a professional.

However, as he would demonstrate countless times in his life and career, what he lacked in height he made up in determination. Anyone who watched him play knows that he packed a mighty punch in defence, his impeccable technique making up for a lack of physical prowess.

When he broke into the Leeds side in the early 2000s, it was like a whirlwind had hit opposition defences. Burrow possessed breathtaking acceleration over short distances and had the balance and poise of a dancer. If a defender made the mistake of planting their feet, he was around them in an instant.

Rob Burrow: The man for the big occasion

The first of his Grand Final wins came in 2004, where Burrow took his first step to immortality, coming off the bench to win a final, as he would do with much more dramatic effect in 2011. He scored a try in the Rhinos’ 2005 World Club Challenge win against Canterbury Bulldogs, the first of three he would win in his career.

Burrow was named in the Super League Dream Team in 2007, for his part in the Rhinos’ Grand Final winning season. He won his first Harry Sutherland Trophy for man of the match in the Rhinos’ 33-6 demolition of the Saints. Few players shone at Old Trafford like Burrow.

2008 ended in a similar fashion, with Burrow ending the season with a Grand Final and a place in the Super League Dream Team. By now, he was a Great Britain and England International, winning man of the series for his role in Great Britain’s 3-0 series win over New Zealand.

There were too many individual moments of brilliance from this period to recount them all here. His try against Bradford in 2008, when he stepped past five defenders to score under the post. His weaving try against New Zealand on his way to winning man of the series. But his biggest moments were yet to come.

The greatest Grand Final try

There are moments in the career of certain athletes when time seems to stand still, and the person in the centre of the action sees life at a different speed from the rest of the world.

All the greatest sportspeople have that skill, and Rob Burrow had it in abundance. However, only a very special few can distil that quality into one perfect moment that sums up their career. When the stage is set and everything falls into place for them to shine.

For Burrow, that moment arrived in the 2011 Grand Final. With Leeds coming into the game as huge underdogs, they needed a hero who could spark the team into life. Burrow was the perfect man for the occasion.

Words can’t do justice to the try he scored, which will be remembered as the greatest Grand Final try, other than to say it was a Rob Burrow try. As he ducked, stepped and sped his way 50 metres through the Saints line, he was Rob Burrow in his purest form. He had captured lightning in a bottle again.

He produced another brilliant break in the second half to send over Ryan Hall for a decisive try. He deservedly won man of the match for his inspirational display, the unanimous choice of the voting panel, as the Rhinos won another Grand Final.

He played a crucial role in the Rhinos’ 2014 Challenge Cup win, chipping a kick into the Wembley sun for Danny McGuire to catch and score. It highlighted an under-rated side of Burrow’s game. The presence of mind and ability to spot an opportunity and take it for his side.

His later years saw Burrow’s role in the Leeds side change, with him featuring more an an impact player from the bench, than a starting scrum half. However, he played a critical role in Leeds’ treble-winning season, which saw his great friend and champion, Kevin Sinfield, end his Rugby League career in triumph.

Going out on top

Fittingly, his final game for Leeds came at Old Trafford, as the Rhinos again defied their underdog tag to beat favourites, Castleford Tigers. Burrow ended his career holding the Super League aloft with his other great co-conspirator, Danny McGuire.

There could be no better end to a career which was so intrinsically linked to the Super League Grand Final.

Burrow did take to the field one final time, running out with his teammates and close friend at Headingley in 2020, shortly after his diagnosis was announced, pulling on a Rhinos shirt for the final time.

Anyone who was there that can will agree that they have never felt emotion like it in a sporting arena. The visceral cheer when Burrow entered the pitch was tinged with a sense of sadness for the battle that was to come.

However, as with everything in his life, Burrow met that challenge head-on and achieved more in sickness than anyone thought possible. The outpouring of grief at his passing says everything about the stature of the man who transcended his sport.

There has never been, and maybe there never will be, another player quite like Rob Burrow.