Wakefield coach pays emotional Rob Burrow tribute ahead of Leeds trip
Leeds will honour Rob Burrow on Saturday.
The man who gave Rob Burrow his full debut as a Leeds Rhinos player has paid tribute to him as his side plan to travel to AMT Headingley and be part of a special afternoon on Saturday.
Leeds host Wakefield on Saturday afternoon in their annual MND awareness game, just two days out from the first anniversary of Burrow’s tragic passing last year.
Trinity coach Daryl Powell was the man who gave Burrow his full debut in 2001, and was his head coach in Burrow’s formative years as a player.
And Powell admitted he was honoured to have played a part in Burrow’s story.
“I am just proud to have been part of such an unbelievable person’s life,” he 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.”
However, the stakes are high for both teams on Saturday afternoon – with a place in the top four potentially at stake for the winner.
And Powell admitted while they will pay tribute to Burrow in the right way, his Wakefield side will not be travelling across West Yorkshire to roll over.
He said: “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.”
