Watch: Sam Burgess joins in Warrington Wolves training as they start pre-season

Pre-season training has begun for many Super League clubs with Warrington Wolves being one of those to have kicked off already, and now footage has emerged of rookie head coach Sam Burgess getting involved with the squad training.

Burgess has signed on to be head coach at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in somewhat of a shock move, the Englishman having never held a professional head coach role before.

He had served an apprenticeship of sorts coaching a regional side in Australia called The Axemen, but otherwise his coaching experience was limited to serving as an assistant to Jason Demetriou at Burgess’ former club South Sydney Rabbitohs.

After dismissing Daryl Powell the higher-ups at Warrington including owner Simon Moran and Chief Executive Karl Fitzpatrick took the search for Powell’s replacement down under.

Warrington almost landed ex-St Helens boss Justin Holbrook, the Grand Final winning head coach reportedly having booked flights before making a U-turn on his decision.

Instead though they went for the unproven Burgess noting that his ability to connect with the players would be a huge benefit from the previous hires, tried and tested traditional head coaches.

With Burgess still only being 34-years-old, turning 35 within the next three weeks, he is of a similar age to much of the playing group and of course incredibly fit.

That’s been evidenced as today the Wolves have released pre-season training footage in which the squad can be seen hill running in the rain, but Burgess is in and amongst the squad highlighting the hands on approach he will likely take.

The footage in question comes from the team’s X profile, formerly Twitter, and the towering frame of Burgess can be seen putting in the hard yards alongside his squad who aren’t all that much younger than him.

⛰️ Hill running to start the week off 🏃‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/uk7Hv2DgRj

— Warrington Wolves (@WarringtonRLFC) November 27, 2023

Incredibly club captain Stefan Ratchford is actually older than Burgess whilst one of the team’s new recruits, Zane Musgrove, played with Burgess in the NRL.

Musgrove has arrived from St George Illawarra to bolster the Wire’s pack, however he started his career with Souths between 2016 and 2018 meaning he was at the club as a teammate of Burgess’ after his return from union.

The 27-year-old new recruit had recently spoken to the team’s social media channels explaining his excitement about getting stuck in for the upcoming campaign.

“I came for the fireworks earlier and it was not even half full but still so loud. I can just imagine it fully packed out with the crowd getting into their chants,” Musgrove explained.

“I’m loving Vaughany’s (Paul Vaughan) chant at the moment so I’m hoping I’ll get one too. I just can’t wait to play in front of this crowd. We want to make this place a fortress so that when teams come here, we’re a tough team to play.