Souths co-owner Russell Crowe won his Oscar in 2000 portraying Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator. On Sunday night at ANZ in the NRL grand final, Sam Burgess proved he’s a modern-day gladiator.
Burgess played the decider after fracturing his cheekbone in the very first tackle of the game, following his accidental head clash with Bulldog James Graham.
Channel Nine cut to South Sydney’s ‘Royal Mum’ – Julie Burgess – with a horrified look on her face.
Julie had no reason to worry, her behemoth son stayed on to spearhead his side in the historic 30-6 victory, ending a 43-year premiership drought, and earning the teak-tough prop the coveted Clive Churchill Medal.
His courage brought back vivid memories of Souths captain John Sattler in the 1970 grand final against Manly at the SCG.
Ten minutes into the game, Sattler’s jaw was broken in three places. He turned to winger Mike Cleary and asked him to hold him up – “So they don’t know I’m hurt.”
The team only found out at halftime, as Sattler played out the 80 minutes to ensure the 23-12 victory.
Sheer courage and passion, just as Burgess showed. The South Sydney never-say-die spirit.
Sattler was in the stand on Sunday night, sitting alongside another Rabbitoh legend Bobby McCarthy, the hero of the 1967 grand final win over Canterbury, with a runaway 75-metre intercept try.
George Piggins was there as well, even though it took $120,000 in donations to charity to get him there. He had refused point-blank for years to attend a Souths game as he played ‘no speaks’ with Russell Crowe,
Piggins, who was hooker in the 1971 premiership success, was instrumental in getting Souths reinstated after they were dropped from the competition at the conclusion of the 1999 season. Thanks to Piggins’ dedication to the cause, Souths were reinstated in 2002.
That’s just a pen picture of how much South Sydney means to rugby league. Their ever-patient fans were at ANZ in droves, they will be celebrating for days, even weeks. And with every good reason.
South Sydney was in command, even though they only led 6-0 for 51 minutes, and were under pressure for another six minutes until a Sam Burgess offload to ‘little’ brother George saw him bust 20 metres under the posts, leaving four Dog defenders in his wake.
Adam Reynolds converted for a 12-6 lead, but the spoils still weren’t guaranteed until the Rabbits really cut loose late in the game, showing their true attacking ability to cross for three tries.
Super athlete Greg Inglis scored the last four-pointer with a 45-degree angled run to the left-hand corner in the shadow of full-time, repeating his signature goanna walk salute.
By then the Rabbitoh faithful were delirious, the celebrations deafening.
Sam Burgess, as a farewell gesture before leaving for rugby, took the conversion from out wide, but just shaved the left-hand upright. That would have been the icing on the cake.
It mattered not, it was South Sydney’s night, with very little Bulldog bark. They came to play, but Souths didn’t let them.
As Bulldog coach Des Hasler said after his fifth grand final appearance in eight years, “They say you learn more from losing, we’ll take that on board.”
But he was gutted, as were his players. They did so well from seventh on the table to make the big one, but Souths were just too good.
Best summed up overall by Rabbitoh coach Michael Maguire – “This is one special moment in time.”
Indeed it was.
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