Sam Burgess is confident his delayed arrival in Las Vegas hasn’t made an impact on his Warrington Wolves players this week.
Warrington had to leave Burgess at home on Sunday when they flew to Nevada with the head coach waiting on his visa application to be processed and completed. The green light came through from the US embassy earlier this week, though, and that allowed Burgess to board a flight from the UK on Wednesday, arriving in Sin City later that night.
The delay meant Richard Marshall and Martin Gleeson had to lead Wolves training in America earlier this week, with Burgess now having just two full days with his team before Saturday’s game. Warrington will have a contested training session with Penrith Panthers later today before making their final preparations for the weekend clash with Wigan Warriors, which opens up the quadruple-header at the Allegiant Stadium.
Speaking at a Warrington signing session at the Rugby League Las Vegas signing session, though, Burgess opened up on his ordeal over the last few days.
“Now I’m here I’ve forgotten what happened earlier in the week,” Burgess told the written media in Vegas. “What a great morning, it’s fantastic, there’s a great energy around the place and I’m looking forward to a good week.
“It wasn’t ideal but I’m here now it’s all about getting the team and everyone else ready for the game on Saturday but also enjoy the whole week as well.
“My assistants are great. They’ve done it before while I’ve been away, I had to shoot to Australia last year, they did a great job. I’m fortunate I’ve got those guys, the players are all connected and know what they need to do.
“I think the week has thrown a bit more at them than it usually would but for them it’s about enjoying the experience. It’s important we soak it all up and enjoy it but appreciate the main thing is the game on Saturday.”
On his mindset earlier in the week, Burgess said: “I was pretty nervous for a few days but it finally got sorted. I knew it would always get to the end result but it took a few days longer than expected.”
Warrington have named an unchanged 21-man squad for the clash and it seems as though Burgess will go with the same team that lined up against Catalans Dragons last Friday, with Oli Leyland set to get the nod over Stefan Ratchford in the halves.
“I think we’ll be looking to go that way,” the Warrington Wolves man said when asked if we could see an unchanged side. “We were a bit better last week and we’ll be looking to build on that.”
On the half-backs, he said: “I think we just wanted to see the different approach to the attack. George and Oli have been great in pre-season and he was very close in round one. I’ve got a lot of admiration for Stef and what he’s done for the club so I just thought I’d give him a shot at the jersey first up.
“I’m not saying it didn’t work out, we got the job done but I just also think Oli could use the experience.”
— Warrington Wolves (@WarringtonRLFC) February 27, 2025
