Sam Burgess on Warrington Wolves' Las Vegas schedule

There will be league games either side of it – maybe even a World Club Challenge clash if things go well between now and season’s end – so while the NRL clubs taking part in the Stateside extravaganza have a pre-season to prepare, The Wire and Wigan Warriors will have plenty to shoehorn into a fraction of the time.

Right now, we are still in “cross that bridge when we come to it” territory, although Burgess says there is “a rough plan” in place for how they will, for one week only, move their usual operation 5,000 miles west.

For an opportunity such as this, however, he insists he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We’ve got a league game the week before, or maybe even the World Club Challenge. It will be a tight schedule but we will make the most of it,” he said.

“We’ve got a rough plan of what we’ll do – we’ll get out there as soon as we can based on our schedule.

“We work backwards from the day of the game, we schedule our training and plan everything around that.

“We’ll be busy, we’ll get out there and try and sell it as best we can. The players are on board with that.

“A Thursday game would be nice the week before, but the World Club Challenge would be on the Saturday and I wouldn’t complain about being in that!

“It’s all part of managing your team and the structure of it, but it would be silly to knock this event back because of the schedule it would create.”

In this game, there is a lot more on the line than just two competition points.

With this unique opportunity to showcase Super League to a brand-new audience, there is a responsibility to excite and entertain.

Burgess, George Williams, Matt Peet and Bevan French at the launch of Super League Las Vegas (Image: SWPix.com)

“Myself and (Wigan coach) Matt Peet were talking and saying we should put on some special plays, or give each other 12 points each and things like that to make it look sexy,” he said, tongue firmly in cheek.

“That’s obviously a bit of a joke but it will be entertaining because of how both teams play. It will be early in the season so defensive structures will still be being figured out.

“It will be a great spectacle and we’re really excited to get over there. We’re excited for the week over there and the build-up too.

“It's a landmark day for the game. We get to go and showcase what we believe to be a really special product in one of the most famous cities in the world.

“I think it’s fitting and we’ll do it justice on the field, there’s no doubt about that.

“Both teams are exciting and have some great players so we’ll make the event special.”

Burgess is, of course, no stranger to attempts at getting rugby league to “break America.”

He was part of the England side that took on New Zealand in a Test match in Denver in 2019, and was a key voice in making sure there was buy-in from NRL talent for the game.

That match, which proved to be his last in an England shirt, attracted a crowd of just under 20,000 to the Denver Broncos’ Mile High Stadium.

Sam Burgess is interviewed after playing for England against New Zealand in Denver in 2019 (Image: SWPix.com)

With this year’s NRL double-header having attracted 40,000 fans to Allegiant Stadium, there is a much higher “base camp” for the 2025 event to start from.

“That was a good Test match and to get a crowd of 20,000 was pretty good considering we did it on not as much forward planning as this,” he said.

“That was our first shot at it but the NRL have already been and we’ve got some time to plan for it, so there’s a fair bit of weight behind it.

“It's a big stadium but it would be great to see as many Warrington fans there as possible. They do travel in numbers.

“I think a lot of Warrington fans went to the NRL games this year but now they get to go and cheer their own team on.

“I’m sure we’ll bring plenty of fans and I just want to see the stadium as full as possible.”