Mother"s pride as three Burgess brothers called up for England"s Rugby League ...

When the three Burgess brothers step out together in their England shirts for the first time, their father Mark will be foremost in their thoughts.

He was a rugby league player like them, and they know how proud he would have been that his twins George and Tom, 21, and their older brother Sam, 24, were yesterday called up for their country’s World Cup squad.

Eldest brother Luke, 26, has missed out on a place but the family’s rare feat is still a fitting memorial to their dad.

The trio were just teenagers in 2007 when Mark, who had played for Dewsbury and Hunslet, died from motor neurone disease aged only 45.

And what has happened since is an astonishing story that takes in friendship with a Hollywood superstar, a TV celebrity girlfriend, and a new life in a new country for the whole family.

After their father’s death the boys all found places on rugby league teams.

Then Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe, who is co-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs team, spotted Sam playing for Bradford Bulls on Sky Sports. He was in Britain filming Robin Hood at the time so he got Sam’s number and called him.

Not surprisingly, at first Sam didn’t believe the man on the end of the line was the Gladiator star.

But then he and mum Julie, 51, spent nearly four hours on a film set with Russell, and he signed with the Rabbitohs in 2009.

Soon after that, Russell signed Tom, George and Luke too. So mum Julie quit her job as an assistant head teacher in Leeds to join them Down Under.

Now they are all in Sydney and in April this year, for the first time since 1910, four brothers took to the pitch in one match.

Julie, a former rugby league player herself, has found a job at a local school. Mother and sons all live close to each other and regularly eat together as a family.

Russell Crowe speaks with an emotional Sam Burgess

Russell has grown so close to them that the seat beside him at every home game is saved… as a place for the late Mark Burgess.

After the star split from his wife Danielle last October, gossip was rife in Australia that he had grown close to Julie.

Her son Sam shot down the rumours saying they were “just mates”.

On Sam’s debut for the team, Russell had handed him a Rabbitohs membership card bearing his father Mark’s name. That was a moment of high emotion for Sam because he had been in his dad’s main carer towards the end of his life.

Julie had split from Mark three years before he contracted the disease and Sam, then 17, was best placed to look after him.

“I had to grow up quick,” he recalls. “It’s a bull***t disease and it toughened me up. My dad deteriorated very fast.

“Some go slow, some go fast. In 18 months he was gone. It was really hard. I lived with it for nine months. He was just clinging on.

“He couldn’t walk, he couldn’t talk. It got to a point when he had to try and write so we could communicate.

“But, looking back, it was the best period of my life. We had a great time.

“We all came together afterwards and said, ‘We’re a tight-knit set of brothers: we’ll always look out for each other’. We’ve always wanted to make a legacy for our dad. I think we’re on the way to doing that.”

So close: Julie and Sam

Julie saw how Marks’ death gave her sons the resolve they needed to succeed in the tough sport.

“The boys are so close and they always have been,” she said. “Luke has always been the bossiest, Sam the happiest and Tom did all his talking for his twin George.

“George was the quietest. He needed speech therapy because he let Tom talk for him.

“Their bond is still the same. It is even stronger now. They really look after each other and they look after me .”

England coach Steve McNamara, who gave Sam his debut for Bradford Bulls at 17, was amazed at how well the teenager coped with caring for a seriously ­disabled father while fighting his way into the first team.

He recalled yesterday: “It was remarkable how he dealt with everything. He was such a young boy, a very talented rugby player but an outstanding human being as well.

“He learned to love cooking to help look after his dad. It was incredible how he coped.

Good friends: Julie (left) with Russell Crowe and family

“He was very strong at the time and very focused about where he wanted to be as a player – I think driven by his father’s illness. It was a tough period.

“I remember him getting the call during training to go to hospital because his dad was struggling. It wasn’t long before he passed away.”

Russell Crowe’s admiration for Sam is also clear. He calls him a “sparkly-eyed man” and adds: “He is a guy who can be as vicious as he needs to be.

“He can do anything he needs to do during the course of that 80 minutes to bring the result towards his team.

“His will to win rises to any occasion. But the moment that final whistle blows, he is a completely different man.’’

Sam, now a celebrity in Australia, has been criticised for his off-the-field partying.

He was described as Sydney’s most eligible bachelor but now has a girlfriend, former X Factor contestant Joelle Hadjia.

Eligible bachelor: Sam is a major celebrity Down Under

Meanwhile, George has been named Rookie of the Year at the Dally M Awards, one of rugby league’s top prizes Down Under.

He and his twin Tom share a flat together while Luke lives with girlfriend Yolanda and their four-month-old baby, Grace.

Proud gran Julie had tears rolling down her face when she held little Grace for the first time.

She said: “Especially with her being a little girl and having brought up four boys. Luke and Yolanda are going to be amazing parents.

“To see Luke so paternal was a really emotional moment for me.”

Someone else proud of the Burgess boys is Paul Medley of Bradford Bulls, who remembers coaching Sam, George and Tom when they were “wild” teens.

“They are really nice lads,” he said. “We like to produce young men who can represent the club to the standard we expect. They were a bit off the rails and wild when young, like every teenager.

“But they have worked very hard to get where they are. I am sure if Mark had been alive today he would have been immensely proud of his lads.

“His memory lives on in them.”

Article source: http://sportsnewsireland.com/rugby/rugby_irish/irish-rugby-squad-for-november-internationals-2013-09-17/

Mother"s pride as three Burgess brothers called up for England"s Rugby League ...