SAM Burgess broke a rib and said nothing.
For two years.
Silent until last September when, cornered in his ANZ Stadium dressing room, this South Sydney enforcer was suddenly asked to explain that ongoing feud all wild eyes, busted cheeks, hits off the ball, even threatening kicks to the face.
Oh, yeah, and prowler tackles.
For earlier that night, Burgess had sprung exactly that on Canterbury captain James Graham.
Thwack.
His low, late hit the kind that often breaks both bone and will.
Yet his arch rival, he responded in kind.
For despite the gags about Graham being whiter than Panadol, he has little interest in easing pain.
A truth proved as his left boot shot out and straight towards that poster boy face of a grounded Burgess — eventually finishing two, maybe three centimetres from an early shower.
Yet afterwards, the Rabbitohs tough had no beef.
For the kick, he shrugged, missed. And footy, it’s violent.
An occupation where everyone has their turn at being thumped, he said.
At which point we asked the Sparkly Eyed Man if, um, maybe he was a little responsible, too?
For Graham, we suggested, had only tried to remove his head after the Redfern enforcer flew in, third man, like some Yorkshire Sam Thaiday.
Graham and Burgess are friends off the field, mortal enemies on it.Source:News Corp Australia
The result a hit that while undeniably legal, also mirrored a prowler tackle which days earlier, in a game between Penrith and Gold Coast, had broken the back of Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
“But James,” Burgess defended softly, “is good at getting people, too.”
And then, to prove his point, he set free the secret.
Revealing: “We played each other in 2014 … and he broke my rib with one of those plays”.
So ding, ding.
For in this new NRL age where punches and shoulder charges are gone, where players change clubs like clubs switch jerseys — ensuring a lack of rivalry, given almost everyone has shared a dressing room — how wonderful the Battle of Britain.
The gloves will be off when the two Brits meet in a Good Friday showdown.Source:News Corp Australia
This ongoing unholy war where, through five years, six games and who knows how many murder attempts, these two Englishmen have kept alive that now dying art — the personal feud.
For once, they were everywhere.
Think Spud and Chief. Or Mad Dog versus Dell.
And how much hate, you wonder, spurred Nathan Hindmarsh to swing at Mick Ennis?
Elsewhere, Brett Kenny took it to The King. And Ray Price, the entire Canterbury pack.
While Balmain’s Benny Elias once bit deep into his own hand to get Mario Fenech sent off.
“But Burgess and Graham, they’re now the best rivalry going around,’’ Elias insists. “Absolutely No.1. And like most fans, I think it’s fantastic.
“Every time they play, it’s like a heavyweight boxing bout. Like they’re fighting one-on-one among 24 other guys.”
League Central podcast: The Titans to make the eight! Plus a full preview of Round 7.
Indeed, rather than document this bloody history, it seems easier to score it like a Las Vegas title fight.
One whose opening round arrived on June 2, 2012.
Back when Burgess was into his third NRL season while Graham, another colossus of the English Super League, was only a dozen games into winter one.
And, yes, they were best of mates.
Still are.
A pair of international roomies whose downtime during Test series is spent — somewhat unbelievably considering the bitten ears, grabbed testicles and trampled rivals that lay in their wake — chatting over cups of tea.
Can you see it?
No, us either.
Graham’s bone crunching hit on Burgess in the 2014 Grand Final was the stuff of legend.Source:News Corp Australia
Especially after reviewing footage of Burgess in that first encounter — sorry, round — when he picked up a loose Steeden and, despite the referee’s whistle demanding play halt, then charged headlong at the rival who still doubles as his dinner guest once a month.
Legs pumping.
Elbow cocked.
The pair colliding like two planets before the ball went down, fists came up, and players from both sides rushed in for what Graham later described as “a whole lot of nothing”.
And given what has come since, he may be right.
Like when the Dogs skipper broke Burgess’s jaw in that opening tackle of the 2014 grand final, a moment on which legend was built.
Or again last year, when it was the Souths enforcer who, seemingly intent on the same, sprinted out of the Bunnies defensive line like that maddest of Vikings in battle scenes.
A rivalry so real, you have to wonder how many other injuries have occurred we don’t know about?
League Central TV: Round 7 Tipping Show4:59
Dean Ritchie and Michael Carayannis preview round 7 and give their tips for each game
“Oh, they may be great mates off the field,” says Fenech, no stranger to a good league feud. “But that all ends the moment they step on it.
“It’s a bit like they’ve been plucked from the ’80s. Every time they come up against each other I think ‘yeah, you guys should’ve played with us’.”
Yet despite being united in violence, not to mention born in towns situated only 90 minutes apart, these best of enemies remain complete opposites.
Burgess, for example, has a style all unrelenting effort. His game not unlike those meteors pounding earth in Armageddon.
Yet Graham, he’s more subtle. Albeit, like wine spiked with anti-freeze is subtle.
His famed hands capable of as much damage before the line as Burgess crashing through it.
Elsewhere, the Canterbury captain is also more animated on field.
More anonymous, off it.
Like Wayne Bennett, impossible to quantify.
Yet if Graham remains misread, Burgess is as read, watched, dissected as any Sydney Confidential favourite.
A fella whose shirtless rig has commanded as much vision as that hooked Graham finger point.
Yet on Friday night, they will again unite.
Round 7.
Violence once again shared like those cups of Earl Grey.
“And neither will hide that fact that it’s personal,’’ Elias enthuses.
“Which is why fans love it.
“Because whenever these two meet, you know each one will give his best physically, verbally, all of it.
“You’re going to get the lot because these guys know the truth of great rivalries … only one guy can win”.
Originally published as A history of violence: two Poms go to war again
Sport | news.com.au — Australia’s #1 news site
