Sam Burgess reveals how Hollywood A-lister Russell Crowe lured him to the Rabbitohs - and it involves a prank call to Shane Warne and Leonardo DiCaprio

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Sam Burgess had been 'hell-bent' on joining the Manly Sea Eagles.
Under the stewardship of legendary coach Des Hasler, the Sea Eagles had gone on to win the 2008 premiership, having placed as a runner-up the year prior, before going on to win the flag again in 2011.
The club was expanding and it was an attractive prospect for 'Slammin Sam' Burgess, who admitted he had been blowing up Hasler's phone with calls, even offering to play for the club for reduced fees.
Multiple other clubs had been interested in snapping up the former Bradford Bulls star, who had his sights set on making a move Down Under to play in the NRL.
But that's where Hollywood A-lister Russell Crowe stepped in.
The Gladiator star and co-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs had been over in the UK at the time filming Robin Hood and had heard through the grapevine that the now Warrington Wolves coach, Burgess, was making rumblings about a move to play rugby league in Australia.
So Crowe got hold of Burgess' phone number and gave the footy star a quick call to see if he could tempt him to join the Bunnies.
But speaking to cricket legends, David Lloyd, Sir Alastair Cook, Phil Tuffnell and Michael Vaughan on The Overlap and Betfair's Stick to Cricket show, Burgess revealed he actuall snubbed Crowe's phone call because he thought someone was prank calling him.
'We were playing down in Wales at the time,' he said to The Overlap and Betfair's Stick to Cricket show.
'I'm just getting a massage - you're not really supposed to have your phone on the massage beds - but I took the call because I was taking anything at the time. It was Russell Crowe on the phone!
'I thought someone was pranking me, so I hung up. I thought: 'I'm not paying a fine just for someone on a prank phone call'.
'Anyway, he rang me back a few times, I let it go through.'
After Burgess got off the massage bed, the Bradford Bulls star finally answered one of the Gladiator star's phone calls.
'He said: 'It's Russell Crowe. I want to catch up with you, I want to meet you. Do you want to come play in Australia?'
'I said: 'Yes, I do.' He said: 'Okay then. I'm filming a movie in Derby, I'll be there next week, you want to come down?''
Burgess, who had spent three years at Bradford before finally moving to the Souths in 2010, agreed to come down and asked the Hollywood star if he could bring some friends along with him.
Crowe, keen to get the England star on board, obliged.
'So, I took four of my mates down and we go to this fancy hotel in Derby - can't remember what it's called - that's where he was staying,' he told the cricket legends.
'We arrive and security's there - 'Name? Where are you from? Who are you seeing?' - Yes, come in. My mates are all walking in, looking at this establishment. We sit and have dinner - the cutlery's laid out perfectly.
Burgess and his friends sat down for dinner with Crowe but the footy great revealed that rugby was not spoken about once during the meeting.
'We end up having a great feed, didn't talk one thing about rugby, but we got a little bit p***ed,' he explained.
'They start bringing out desserts - they had like gold spoons, real gold. So, my mates are ordering extra desserts, saying, 'Yeah, get me one more of them please,' and they're pocketing the spoons. We get in the car on the way home and they've all got two or three spoons each - 'We're killing it, boys!'
'We didn't have any conversations about rugby.'
Instead, they opted to play a few pranks on some of the illustrious names in Crowe's phone book, including Leonardo DiCaprio and legendary Aussie cricketer Shane Warne.
'We were prank calling off Russell's phone - that's how the night finished up. We prank-called all these movie stars,' he said.
'We rang Leonardo DiCaprio. We rang Shane Warne - Warney, big mate. We rang a few other people. I'm thinking, this is amazing, how fun is this?'
After the lavish dinner, Burgess explained he went down to meet Crowe again where they talked shop.
'A couple of days later, I went down, and we spoke a bit more about the opportunity to play in the NRL and my ambitions as a player - I was only 20 at the time. From that day on we've been great mates.
'He's been true to his word: 'There won't be a door in the world I can't open, you just gotta walk through them.' And he's just such a great bloke. Loves his cricket.'
The rest is history, with Burgess going on to cement himself as a legend of the club, helping lift the Bunnies to win their first premiership in 43 years during the 2014 season. He would go on to make 176 appearances for the footy club across two spells, sandwiched between a stint in rugby union back in England.
He would notably pick up the Clive Churchill medal during the Grand Final that year, after suffering a horror head collision with fellow Brit James Graham in the opening minute of the match.
Burgess had fractured his cheekbone in the collision and could barely see out of his right eye.
'First tackle of the game, I clash heads with James Graham a great mate of mine and smash my face up,' he told the podcast.
'I had no option but to come off. South Sydney hadn't won for 43 years. We'd had a great season, worked our backsides off, and now we're here.
'The trainer comes out, I tell him I'm in a bad way - he says: 'Oh f***'.'
Burgess revealed to the podcast that he tested out the injury to see if he could keep playing.
'One of my thoughts was: 'I'm not going to have a beer tonight, because my face will be out here.' But I thought: 'Let's see how far I can get before I have to leave the field'. Tried running, tackling - pain was manageable - so I stayed on.
'At half-time, the doctor wants to assess me. I say: 'Doc, all due respect, I want to sit and listen to the coach, stay connected to the team'. In the second half, my brother George misses a tackle. I give him a spray: 'You lazy b******, I'm here covering you with my face busted - you better make it up'. Next set he scores one of the greatest individual tries in a grand final.
The footy great revealed he didn't go to hospital after the game, instead joining his team-mates to celebrate the huge victory.