Warrington Wolves’ Sam Burgess lifts lid on what he said to referee Tom Grant

Warrington trailed 10-6 at the break and were 14-6 behind before two tries in the final quarter ensured they took two precious points from Super League’s 5,000th fixture.

The hosts fielded a completely different three-quarter line from the previous week’s win at St Helens, with Jake Thewlis, Stefan Ratchford and Arron Lindop coming into the side and Ben Currie switching from second-row to centre, in place of injury victims Josh Thewlis, Toby King, Rodrick Tai and Matty Ashton.

Lindop, Ratchford and Thewlis scored Wolves’ tries and Burgess was delighted with his team’s effort to pull the game from the fire, but admitted he was less pleased at the interval.

Burgess spoke to Grant as the referee left the field and, in his post-match press conference, revealed: “I just asked about a couple of forward passes which I thought were pretty obvious, at really important times.

“I just wanted to know if he thought they were forward at all. I know referees have got a tough job, but they were pretty important calls – and he has got two touch judges as well – so I wanted to know what was going on there.

“I felt like I had to ask that question. I wanted to know if I was seeing some different things. It was done in a good manner.”

Of Grant’s reply, Burgess said: “He said he called them as he saw them, which is fair enough. I think in review we’ll all see what happened.”

Reflecting on his side’s victory, Burgess was “proud of their efforts”. He said: “It was a really tough, high-quality game, especially in the first half, which was a really tough arm wrestle. Leeds were great so we had to find something pretty special to win.”

Of his rejigged Warrington Wolves three-quarter line, he added:  “I thought they all took their tries really well. Arron’s try was a highlight reel moment and Stef’s was a tough one to finish. Jake took his well – we had set up that play in training during the week, so we left it late, but it was nice we could put it on.

“We saw his [Thewlis’] quality tonight. He made some good tackles and took his try well, it was a really solid performance from him.”