Leeds Rhinos skipper Rob Burrow bows out in style with eighth Grand Final triumph
Sunday 8 October 2017 13:23, UK
Leeds Rhinos skipper Rob Burrow says he could not have wished for a better ending to his rugby league career.
Burrow, 35, hung up his boots after helping the Rhinos to a record-extending eighth Grand Final triumph at Old Trafford with a resounding 24-6 victory over his home-town club Castleford.
It was also Burrow's eighth victory and came just 12 months after his club were forced to battle against relegation after a miserable 2016.
"It's not really sunk in," Burrow said. "To perform that well against such a good side is special. This group of players really believe in themselves. I think we took a lot out of last year and were determined to bounce back.
"There is a sort of feeling of invincibility with this team. That's not in any way arrogance, you just believe in yourselves.
"You can't come here and dip your toe in you, you've got to leave the performance. I think with us form is irrelevant, as long as you turn up and perform. It's probably something Leeds have got over most teams, being able to play well here.
"I've been very lucky to be involved with some special players. Just to win one trophy would have been something but to have won the amount I have over my career is something I never expected."
Burrow insists there is no going back on his decision to retire and he will donate his boots to charity before embarking on a coaching career with Leeds.
"I'm done," he said. "I've really enjoyed my career. I didn't want to go on too long. I'm really happy to go out like this."
Meanwhile, Castleford captain Michael Shenton refused to blame the absence of Zak Hardaker for his team's worst performance of the season.
Coach Daryl Powell was forced to reshuffle his side after the shock withdrawal of Hardaker just 48 hours beforehand - but Shenton insisted there were no excuses.
"That was a quality team we put out there with some outstanding players but we didn't play to our potential whatsoever," he said.
"We can't blame it on that. We haven't spoken about it for the last few days, we've moved on.
"We had a great session on Friday, I thought the preparation was good. We were quite relaxed going into it, I thought we handled the build-up well but we made too many big, big errors in important times in the game. Leeds won all the little battles out there.
"That was not the top-of-the-table team you've seen all year.
"It's massively disappointing but we're going to stick together and move on. We're going to have some boys going out to the World Cup, then we'll have a good off season and get over this.
"It's tough to take at the moment but there's been plenty of positives to take of the season and Leeds taught us a few good lessons tonight."
