ST HELENS: George Burgess believes South Sydney Rabbitohs will be marked men next season after they created history against St Helens by romping to the World Club Challenge title on Sunday.
Souths inflicted a record World Club Challenge defeat on Saints and with it secured a clean sweep for Australia in the World Club Series as Joel Reddy scored twice in a 39-0 romp.
Hollywood actor and Rabbitohs owner Russell Crowe watched as the Australian side dismantled last year's Super League champions St Helens from the first whistle.
And after hammering the best Britain has to offer; Burgess believes Sydney will have a target on their backs during this season's NRL campaign.
He said: "We expected St Helens to come out very strong against us. It wasn't easy from the start, they came at us with a lot of aggression and made our lives difficult.
"We were really determined to keep the scoreline as low as we could, to come away with that nil was very satisfying and something we've been trying to do for some time. It's a good night for us.
"It has been an exceptional week, an unbelievable experience - it's something I have always dreamed of as a kid growing up in West Yorkshire and to come back here to England to do it is a big achievement for me.
"We're going to be marked men next season, we just need to take our time and give our all every week."
Souths skipper Greg Inglis, who scored a try himself, was at his imperious best throughout.
He said: "It's satisfying to walk away with the win and with the silverware; we came over here and knew it was going to be a challenge.
"We put in an 80 minute performance, we showed up and all credit to our boys for the way that they performed.
"It's satisfying, there's a lot of people in the background who make this possible - the high performance team for instance, we have got a great bunch of guys here and there's a lot of work that goes on off the field - they don't always get the credit they deserve."
St Helens skipper Jon Wilkin cut a forlorn figure at the final whistle; he conceded Saints had been outplayed from start-to-finish and it was very much back to the drawing board.
The English champions have started the new Super League season with two wins from two but against the Rabbitohs they were second best.
He said: "There were a couple of close calls early in the game but it would be ridiculous for me to say they changed the game because we have conceded 40 points after all.
"Firstly let's give credit to South Sydney, they are a fantastic team, they are well coached and they executed a very good game plan against us.
"If anything what this has showed is the NRL teams don't make mistakes, in the Super League we're more flamboyant and throw the ball around a bit more but crucially all English teams this weekend have made errors and been punished for them.
"We made mistakes at the start of the game and we got punished for them by a very good side. It's a lesson for us about how we need to play going forward.
"I think we made errors with the ball and defensively and when a team like South Sydney complete 90 per cent of the team that's going to cause you problems.
"They made us pay, we've got a lot of young guys and they will learn from this experience."
Comments
Comments are closed.