Sam Burgess’ Warrington Wolves impact broken down on anniversary of Daryl Powell sacking

Tuesday (July 30) marks exactly a year to the day since Warrington sacked Daryl Powell. 12 months on, the Wolves are now sat top of the Super League ladder, testament to a remarkable transformation.

Here, we take a look over the last 365 (or so) days, signposting the important landmark moments along the way…

July 30, 2023: Powell sacked

Powell‘s dismissal came immediately after a humiliating 42-6 defeat at bottom club Wakefield Trinity, who he – coincidentally – now heads up! His Wire side had lost six games on the spin, and won just one of their last nine.

Assistant Ryan Sheridan also left the club, with Gary Chambers placed in interim charge. Richard Marshall was the man chosen to support Chambers.

August 7, 2023: Sam Burgess appointed from 2024

Just eight days later, Warrington‘s next head coach was chosen – NRL legend Sam Burgess would return home more than a decade after leaving for South Sydney Rabbitohs come 2025.

The 25-time England international had helped the Bunnies’ coaching team out since retiring in 2019, and had the lead role for a community rugby league side Down Under, but this was his first-ever professional #1 gig.

He would see the remainder of 2023 out with Souths, penning a two-year deal at the Halliwell Jones Stadium for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Instantly, Burgess threw himself into Wire work though, with plenty of late night and early morning phone calls to interim boss Chambers, helping out as much as he could from afar.

August 11, 2023: Martin Gleeson re-joins club

Burgess’ former Great Britain and England team-mate Gleeson agreed a deal to re-join Warrington until the end of the 2023 season. Having made over 100 appearances for the club during his playing career, Gleeson had gone on to work with both England’s rugby union side and Premiership outfit Wasps among others.

The Wolves brought him in to aid Chambers and Marshall, particularly where the attacking side of the game was concerned. He was not set to be with the club by the time Burgess arrived however, with an opportunity overseas taking his fancy.

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August 26, 2023: Ending losing run

After Powell’s sacking, the Wire had gone on to lose game at home to Catalans Dragons and away against Leeds Rhinos, making it eight straight defeats.

That run was halted with a much-needed 18-4 win away at Hull FC, which was then followed up with a mammoth 66-12 victory on home soil against Castleford Tigers. Those back-to-back victories aided the Wolves’ play-off hopes greatly.

September 20, 2023: Gleeson’s Wolf of Wall Street moment

Two days before the last game of the regular season, with improvement in performance evident, the news was made public that attack coach Gleeson would not be leaving after all.

He turned down the offer of a job overseas to be part of Burgess’ coaching team come 2024, penning a two-year deal.

September 22, 2023: Play-off place secured

And when that last game of the season came around, Warrington delivered. They went into their trip to Huddersfield Giants knowing that a win would guarantee them 6th spot regardless of how 7th-placed Salford Red Devils fared at home against Catalans.

Salford lost in the end, but Wire got their own job done anyway – winning 20-8 at the John Smith’s Stadium to set up an ‘eliminator’ tie in the play-offs away against Saints. They had been beaten at home by Saints in the penultimate game of the regular campaign.

September 30, 2023: Season over

As was largely expected, Wire were beaten by Saints, so fell at the first hurdle in the play-offs. The performance was a respectable one though, pipped by an eight-point margin with a 16-8 scoreline. The curtain was brought down on a season to forget on the whole.

October 20, 2023: Burgess lands in UK

The Boss has landed! ✈️

Welcome Sam and family! pic.twitter.com/OCMNLS28E0

— Warrington Wolves (@WarringtonRLFC) October 20, 2023

The official start of the new era. New boss Burgess landed back in the UK, and got to work instantly.

November 11, 2023: Pre-season begins

Pre-season began on November 11, and from the off, it was clear just how much of a hands-on head coach Burgess was going to be.

Pretty much anything he asked his troops to do, he did too. The Wolves squad spent some time in an army camp with ex-Special Forces Soldier Ant Middleton, with the players running around 70 kilometres in the space of 36 hours. Burgess ran circa 68 of the 70 with them!

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January 26, 2024: Friendly outings

The Dewsbury-born ace was victorious in his first game in charge – beating dual-registration partners Widnes Vikings 46-40 in an entertaining pre-season friendly at the end of January with plenty of youth on show.

The following week, Wire lost 28-12 to fellow Super League outfit Leigh Leopards in Joe Philbin’s testimonial.

February 17, 2024: Burgess’ first competitive game in charge

Thank you for your support in Perpignan, Wire fans 👏

We’ll take our lessons from tonight and be ready for Round 2 pic.twitter.com/ZxEzt9Ivn0

— Warrington Wolves (@WarringtonRLFC) February 17, 2024

Officially however, Burgess’ first competitive game in charge of Warrington went down in the history books as a defeat. When the fixtures were released, a trip to 2023 Grand Finalists Catalans in Round 1 looked tricky, and proved that way.

Despite putting in a battling performance, the visitors left Perpignan having been beaten 16-10. 17-year-old winger Arron Lindop scored a try on debut though, a sign of things to come in terms of Burgess putting his trust in youth.

February 23, 2024: First win

Burgess didn’t have to wait long for his first ‘official’ win. Six days later in Round 2, and in his first competitive game in charge at the HJ, his side picked up a comfortable 36-10 victory against Castleford.

April 14, 2024: A statement win in the cup

Having won five of their first seven games in Super League, and seen off London Broncos in the Sixth Round of the Challenge Cup, Wire had to contend with a cup quarter-final tie away against Saints.

This was the first real statement of intent and the sign of how far they’d come in a short space of time, winning 31-8 and booking a spot in the last four.

May 19, 2024: Wire book Wembley return

Three further Super League victories followed in the next four games before the Challenge Cup semi-final tie came around.

Huddersfield were the opponents, and the venue was once again Saints’ Totally Wicked Stadium. The Wolves went into the last-four tie as favourites, and proved exactly why, absolutely demolishing the Giants 46-10 to book a first trip to Wembley since 2019.

June 8, 2024: Wembley heartbreak

That 2019 trip to the capital saw Warrington leave with the Challenge Cup in their possession, but five years on, that wasn’t to be the case.

For probably the first time under Burgess’ tutelage, the Wolves didn’t show up and never got going. Wigan Warriors beat them 18-8 under the arch to ensure they’d become the first side in almost 20 years to hold all four major honours on offer at once.

That scoreline was generous to the Wolves, who never really looked like they were going to be the ones with the silverware in hand come the end of the afternoon. Post-match, Burgess vowed this was only the beginning for his young side.

July 26, 2024: Wigan conquered

And so far, it would appear that the 35-year-old could well be correct. After their defeat in the Challenge Cup final, they lost at home to Salford.

But since then, the Wolves have just excelled. After wins against Hull FC, Huddersfield and Leeds, they then went and won 24-10 away against Saints despite being down to 12 men for an hour following James Harrison’s early dismissal. Matty Nicholson was also sin-binned in the second half of that game, but the Wire’s defence remained resolute and saw them through.

And then, in what was probably the biggest statement made by Burgess’ side so far in 2024 – even if he wouldn’t say so post-match -, they moved top of the Super League ladder with a whopping 40-4 victory away against Wigan last Friday night.

The Cherry and Whites had won 17 in a row on home soil across all competitions, and would have set a new club record had they beaten Warrington. That never looked on the cards throughout the 80 minutes though.

Almost a year to the day since that Powell sacking, the win at Wigan exemplified exactly how far the Wolves had come.

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