Sam Burgess admits he wants darts sensation Luke Littler training with his Warrington side.
But there’s no big sport conversion in the offing. He just hopes to help out the teenage ace who’s “inspired” the town. Huge Wolves fan Littler, who only turned 17 on Sunday, reached the PDC World Championship final in remarkable style earlier this month.
Burgess, who takes charge of Warrington for the first time in Friday's friendly against Widnes, has marvelled at all the Luke The Nuke mania since. The ex-South Sydney and England ace, 35, said: “It's unbelievable isn't it?
“He's been a revelation. He came to training last week. Not to train. But I am going to try get him to do some training actually. That'd be good. The boys here love their darts. They've got me buying five or six sets of darts already. But he's really inspired the town, and he's a great lad. I've offered him to come in for a session but he's got a lot going on.”
Burgess knows all about bursting onto the world scene as a teenage star. The towering forward was just 18 when he famously marked his Great Britain debut with a thunderous on Kiwi hardman Fuifui Moimoi.
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Before his 21st birthday, he’d signed for NRL outfit Souths and went on to become a rugby league legend. There’s plenty of similarities now with Littler. And Burgess admitted: “He's got a bit of belief in himself. I like how he just attacks it. He's got no fear. It's probably a good lesson for a lot of people. Especially athletes. He doesn’t second guess himself.
“He just goes out, has a go and tries his best. And it's got him into a pretty good position hasn't it? He seems calm. He's enjoying himself. His world is going to be spinning for a little bit so if we can support him in any way, that’s good.”
Burgess, meanwhile, hasn’t ruled out a move for a more familiar face - his younger brother Tom. The England prop, 31, is out of contract at Souths at the end of this year and has said if another extension doesn’t materialise, he wouldn’t mind a switch to Warrington.
Luke Littler has taken the world of darts by storm (Getty Images)Asked about that, Burgess admitted: “I'd like to coach him! Tommy's still got a lot to offer. He's just getting better with age. “He gets the job done. If we can afford him, he'd be nice. I think he's still got a lot to offer in the NRL and has a young family out there.”
Burgess is loving his first transition to a head coach role. But he’s quickly learning about the pitfalls having lost a raft of players to injury this week. Captain Stefan Ratchford is only 50/50 for their Super League opener at Catalans, loose forward Matty Nicholson and new signing Rodrick Tai are set to miss it and winger Josh Thewlis also has a knock.
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