Sam Burgess reveals what annoys him after taking charge at Warrington Wolves
SAM Burgess has already found his biggest annoyance now he is a senior rugby league coach – the weather.
But the Warrington boss admits he will happily take hastily switching training pitches because their main one is waterlogged as his main issue.
The England rugby league legend knows those in charge can have just about anything thrown at them – he was at the centre of one or two during his time in Australia.
However, here it is a case of just dealing with things and that suits him just fine.
“It’s starting to get on my nerves a bit,” Burgess said about the weather.
“The other morning, I walked out and checked the fields – waterlogged!
“We’ve been constantly having to move or change locations but if that’s the biggest problem, I can manage that.
“My whole playing career was littered with focus and scrutiny. I had a bit of a crash course in managing it as a player. It was a weekly or daily thing for a number of years.
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“And working in the NRL, there’s a lot of stuff that comes up that you have to manage, you get across a lot of stuff pretty quickly.
“I’m not saying there’s not as much over here but I was prepared for a lot. You can make a few little mistakes but everything’s more under the microscope in Australia.
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“So I’ve really enjoyed my time coaching here. There’s not as much scrutiny on you privately too – I’m enjoying that side of life.
“As a coach, you’ve got the whole group to think about but in Australia, it’s like football here – lose a couple of games and managers are under pressure.”
Burgess leads Warrington into tomorrow's rapid Challenge Cup reunion with London Broncos, who they hammered 58-4 in Super League on Sunday.
It also reunites him with a competition he grew to love as a boyhood Leeds fan – and one that took some explaining when he first moved down under.
He added: “The Aussies that come and play here love it. Explain it to players and people in the game over there who don’t know much about it, they can’t get their head around it.
“But tell them the final’s at Wembley and they start to understand it. Maybe they’ll grasp it a bit this year.
“I went to the 1999 final with my family and it was always a big part of the calendar as a kid growing up – it was a good day, Leeds won.
“It’s a great sporting event and it’s good to be back amongst it.”