Leeds Rhinos & Wakefield Trinity coaches pay tribute to Rob Burrow ahead of MND awareness derby

Rhinos face Wakefield Trinity two days before the first anniversary of Burrow’s death, on June 2, 2024 - five years after he was diagnosed with MND. A minute’s applause for Burrow will be held before kick-off and the eight-time Grand Final winner’s family will be present.

Leeds will wear a one-off kit for the BBC-televised fixture which features the name of all Burrow’s teammates at club and representative level, plus wife Lindsey and children Macy, Maya and Jackson. Rhinos coach Arthur remembered Burrow as a “game-breaker”. He said: “The game would be in the balance, there’d be nothing doing and all of a sudden he’d come up with a special play to break it open. That’s what special players do. It has nothing to do with coaching, it’s just the gift those guys have.”

Trinity boss Powell was coach of Leeds when Burrow made his full debut, scoring Rhinos’ only try in a defeat by Warrington Wolves at Wilderspool in April, 2001. “I am just proud to have been part of such an unbelievable person’s life,” Powell said.

“I coached people like Rob and Danny McGuire in Leeds’ under-18s so I knew how talented and special he was. I remember when I was still playing, he carved us open in a touch game when he was coming through the system; he was tiny, but he was so fast and athletic and he was exceptionally tough.

“He had everything you’d want in a rugby league player, he was very brave as a young man and committed to what he wanted to do. When I took over we were going through a process of changing the culture at Leeds and the young players coming through were pretty special rugby league players, so [giving him his debut] was a pretty easy decision. Things needed to change and he was part of that.

“He took the size thing as a personal challenge; you didn’t want to run straight at him because he folded people, he genuinely did. He was such a high quality young player and young man.”

Rhinos beat Leigh Leopards in last year’s MND awareness game, which was their first home fixture after Burrow’s death. That was one of AMT Headingley’s most emotional and memorable nights and Arthur recalled: “I wasn't here, but it was when I was getting myself ready to come over and I remember watching the game and the emotion of the occasion.

“The support of the crowd was amazing and I saw how emotional Brodie Croft got after the game. It’s a big week, his family will be here so there are plenty of reasons why we should want to get up and play.”

But he stressed: “As much as I can, I've tried to take the emotion out of it and concentrate on our performance. If we do that, it keeps everyone else happy. Sometimes when you focus too much on the emotion and all the other reasons, you forget about the main reason. Without being disrespectful, if we focus on our main job and what we're paid to do, it'll keep a lot of people happy."

Powell is also keen for his players to put emotion to one side. He stressed: “While we'll pay full respect to the champion Rob was and will always be remembered as, we'll do what we need to do. We will turn up, be ourselves and do what we can to take the emotion out of it.”