Rob Burrow died on the 2nd of June, 2024 after a long fight against motor neurone disease. He told the world of his diagnosis back in 2019 and since that day he campaigned to raise money to combat the disease and to increase awareness of it. His funeral was held in Pontefract, where he was born, on the 7th of July.
Burrow achieved so much in the last years of his life, alongside his former teammate, Kevin Sinfield, wife, Lindsey, and others. However, we do not want to focus on his death, his brilliant fundraising and campaigning, or his post-rugby life. Instead, our focus here is on his incredible career on the pitch.
True Great of Rugby League
Premature death tends to make us remember sportspeople and other celebrities more fondly but there is no doubt that Burrow is a true great of rugby league. He was a key part of one of the best sides English rugby has ever seen. The Leeds Rhinos were a winning machine for much of the first 20 years of the 21st century. At times scintillating, they also had real grit and reserve and found a way to win even when they weren’t favourites and weren’t at their best.
Burrow epitomised that, both the brilliance and the winning spirit, and he helped the Rhinos amass a dizzying array of silverware. He always seemed destined for great things, even if in his earliest years many thought he was too small to go anywhere near the top of the game. Standing just 5ft 5in tall, and initially relatively slight, as a child many wrote him off, but he showed he had the intelligence, speed, ability and courage to make it in the game.
In 2001, The Guardian newspaper wrote that “the 10-stone teenager who starred for Leeds” had been named young player of the season. From there, he never looked back. Initially standing in for Ryan Sheridan, Leeds’ first-choice scrum-half, the man from Ponty began to establish himself as first choice over the years ahead.
He was part of the Leeds team that won the Super League title in 2004, though still trying to fully establish himself. He began the Grand Final on the bench as the Rhinos beat local rivals Bradford Bulls 16-8. However, 12 months on he started the Grand Final against the same opposition, playing at stand-off. He couldn’t help Leeds avoid defeat but he was named in the Super League’s Dream Team that year and went from strength to strength in the years ahead.
He would go on to lift eight Super League titles with the Rhinos, tasting glory in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017. His team were almost unbeatable in this era, despite high-class opposition being provided by St Helens, Wigan and Warrington. Burrow won the Challenge Cup on two occasions with Leeds, in 2014 and 2015, as well as the World Club Challenge three times (2005, 2008 and 2012).
Not Always the Best But Always Winners
It is in some ways interesting that Burrow’s Rhinos, despite, their eight Super League crowns, only won the League Leader’s Shield three times. In 2004, 2009, and 2015, they proved themselves the top side in the Super League during the normal season and went on to confirm that status by also winning the Grand Final.
However, that means that in five seasons with Burrow in the team, they did not finish top of the table after the regular season but still came through the play-offs to deliver the goods when it mattered most. In 2011 and 2012 they actually came fifth but won back-to-back Super League titles and that was very much indicative of the will to win Burrow, Sinfield and the Rhinos had.
Magical Individual Moments
Burrow, like all the players that formed the core of the great Rhinos squads of the 21st century, was very much a team player. The collective was what made Leeds so strong and what made Burrow so strong during his illness, with teammates such as Sinfield and Jamie Jones-Buchanan stepping up when it mattered most. But all team sports are, to some degree, shaped by individuals, and Burrow provided Rhinos supporters with no shortage of magical moments.
He won the Harry Sunderland Trophy, awarded to the Man of the Match in the Super League Grand Final, not once but twice. Along with Sinfield he is one of seven players to have won it twice, with no player (at the time of writing) able to claim a hat-trick of successes.
Burrow first won the Trophy in 2007, as he played a key role in the Rhinos’ comprehensive 33-6 win over St Helens. Saints had finished a point above their opponents in the regular season as the two best teams met in the final. On the day, Burrow made the difference and put the Saints to the sword. He dictated play and although his only scoring contribution was a drop goal he was central to everything his team did well.
In 2011 he was at it again. And Leeds were thrashing St Helens again – they beat them in the Grand Final four years out of five between 2007 and 2011. This time the score was 32-16, the Rhinos cantering to success, Burrow bagging his team’s first try of the final with a fine individual effort. The Guardian newspaper wrote that it was “tiny scrum-half Rob Burrow providing the decisive contributions in this land of the giants.” And that sums up much of his career, as time and time again he proved that size was far from everything.
Underappreciated at International Level?
Kevin Sinfield pays tribute to his friend Rob Burrow after the former Leeds Rhinos side passed away on Sunday pic.twitter.com/2USaDRom5l
— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) June 2, 2024
Burrow played 13 times for England and five for Great Britain but many feel he was underappreciated and underutilised by the two sides. He scored 13 tries across those 18 games, and was named the Player of the Series, winning the George Smith Medal as GB beat New Zealand 3-0 in a 2007 series.
Ultimately other players were just preferred ahead of him at times, including his sometime Leeds teammate Danny McGuire. The rights and wrongs of that can be debated but what is certain is that Burrow was a genuinely world-class player and a true Leeds icon and legend.