Rugby: Sam Burgess puts union in a different league

Sam Burgess is in England's World Cup training squad after just 20-odd games for Bath. Photo / Getty Images

The genteel lawns of Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park are not perhaps the first place that spring to mind when you think of Sam Burgess. Certainly he never imagined, back when he was growing up in West Yorkshire, that he would one day find himself dressed in slacks, enjoying an afternoon with the Pimm's set, in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen.

"Yeah, I probably won't be telling too many people back home about this," Burgess says. "Just driving in here was an experience. It's nothing like where I grew up."

Not that he looks remotely uncomfortable. Burgess has shown an impressive ability to adapt and deal with adversity.

He grew up young. When, in 2005, with his parents already divorced, his father was diagnosed with incurable motor neurone disease, Burgess threw himself into the role of carer until Mike's death in 2007.

After Russell Crowe convinced the then 20-year-old to move from the Bradford Bulls to South Sydney, Burgess became a central figure in the NRL club's march towards a grand final triumph last year, when Burgess broke his cheekbone in the first contact of the game but played on, picking up the man of the match award in the process.

Burgess and Crowe remain close, speaking on the phone "maybe four or five times a week".

"Just chatting. Seeing how his kids are getting on. One of his boys is playing a bit of rugby now so we keep in touch about that. He sent me a little message [this week] about going into World Cup camp."

The switch to Bath last year was a risk. The entire Burgess family — mother Julie, elder brother Luke and younger twin brothers Tom and George — all emigrated with him to Australia. And they were happy there. Julie, in particular, was distraught to learn he was giving it all up to play for Bath.

Burgess, though, was eager for the next challenge and is proving himself equal to it. This week, seven months after his Bath debut and with just 20-odd rugby games, Burgess joined England's 50-man pre-World Cup training squad.

Whether he will make Stuart Lancaster's final cut of 31 remains to be seen. Burgess would rather not answer questions on the subject. "I have an opportunity," is all he will say. What Burgess will say is that he has no regrets about leaving Sydney for Bath, or indeed league for union.

But he admits the transition has been tougher than he expected.

"There are not as many transferable skills as you might think. Certainly my respect for the game since coming and playing it has grown a lot. Which is not to say I was disrespectful before, but it's just the culture in league.

"I just didn't understand it, the specific roles people have. The front-rowers, the work they get through and what they have to do on a weekend is unbelievable.

"Then the lineouts, you might think they just stand there and throw it in. But the amount of detail and practice, everything that goes into winning a lineout. It's a fine art. My view of the game has changed in that respect.

"There are many more specialist players [in union] — hooker, tighthead, loosehead, openside, blindside — whereas in league, there are specialist positions but everyone across the board can do everyone else's positions, basically."

If it sounds as if Burgess is declaring a preference for union, he makes clear that is not his intention.

"I'm not going to compare them in terms of which I enjoy more," he says. "They are two different games. I enjoy both. But what I will say is that, with union, the longer you play it, the more you enjoy it."

The important thing, he insists, is that he continues to improve.

"Luckily, I like to ask questions. And, believe me, I have asked some pretty dumb questions. I remember the first time we kicked it out on the full off a kickoff. I was like 'what's next?' A penalty? A free kick? A scrum?"