DECEMBER 2017
One of Wayne Bennett’s regrets is that he didn’t get a chance to coach, Sam Burgess when Sam was a young man, just starting to learn his craft in the game of rugby league.
Burgess still went on the become a dual rugby international, as well as winning a NRL Premiership with South Sydney. But Bennett believes he could have fine-tuned the wild man Burgess into something even more deadly – and efficient – given the chance.
In 2017, Burgess captained England in the Rugby League World Cup tournament in Australia, with Bennett the controversial choice as coach, given he was a ‘colonial’, and was not prepared to move to the UK to live. In 2004, Bennett was coach of the Australian side which defeated Great Britain 44-4 in the final of the Tri-Nations in England, a tournament I covered for News Limited.
Australia defeated ‘The Poms’ 6-0 in the World Cup Final at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on December 2, 2017, with second rower, Boyd Cordner scoring the only try, while skipper, Cameron Smith landed the conversion.
Cordner’s try came in the 15th minute, and most in the crowd of 40,033 anticipated a landslide Australian victory. But the English stood tall, with Dewsbury lad, Sam Burgess leading the way, and it took a fine defensive effort by Australian lock, Matt Gillett to stop John Bateman scoring a try just before half time.
England had more chances, the best of them in the 65th minute, when centre, Kallum Watkins broke clear, only to stumble, after a desperate ankle tap by his opposite, Josh Dugan. England applied enormous pressure in the last 10 minutes, but prop, Tom Burgess (brother of Sam) twice surrendered possession deep inside Australia’s territory.
The referee was Gerard Sutton – an Australian – not a good look at Test level, when ‘neutral’ referees should be appointed, even though many Australian administrators believe there are no good referees outside this country. Penalties favoured England 7-6 and scrums finished 8-8, not that scrum counts mean anything.
Australia became the first to hold another nation scoreless in a World Cup Final, and they conceded only 16 points across the 2017 tournament. Mal Meninga became the first man to captain, and coach, World Cup winning sides, after leading Australia to victory in the 1992 final at London’s Wembley Stadium, when Bob Fulton was coach.
“It was like an old fashioned Test match,” Meninga said of the 2017 final.
Bennett described the match as State of Origin standard, and put victory down to Australia’s better ball control.
Bennett coached Mal Meninga through his formative years at Souths’ Magpies in Brisbane, and Mal went on to become an ‘Immortal’ of the game. Bennett told a Men of Leage Foundation lunch at Maroochydore RSL Club in November, 2022, that he believed Sam Burgess would make a fine coach, and he wished he had had Sam under his wing, when Sam was a young man.
I attended the 2017 Final with my wife, Marie, capping a lovely week in which we caught up with English friends such as David Howes; Terry and Joyce Holmes and Brian Atherton. My brother, Andrew watched the match live on television, in Vietnam, sitting in a bar alongside Australian Victoria Cross winner, Keith Payne.
Writing in his excellent publication, ‘The Rugby League Annual’, editor, David Middleton said the World Cup illustrated the genuine appetite that existed among players and fans for international football. I’m not sure that appetite is now shared by some in the halls of power, where it is the NRL and Origin first, and the rest can have the crumbs from the table.
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