NEW Huddersfield Giants recruit Tom Burgess has not held back on his views of Salford Red Devils’ situation as they went up against St Helens on Saturday night.
Live on BBC Two, the Red Devils boss Paul Rowley fielded a 16-man team effectively made up of reserves players after the club failed to get its sustainability cap of £1.2 million lifted in time for Super League Round One.
Rowley explained his version of events to BBC Sport before the game, saying: “I found out an hour before we had to put the squad in, I had just come out of an MRI scan on my shoulder. It was a difficult moment to be honest.
“We had read the narrative, it was probably a miscommunication on many fronts.
“Our club was of the impression that we had a full team to select from and we trained as such.
“We had done our main session and squad declaration was on a day off so it became a very difficult process.”
However, after such a good first weekend of Super League action so far – with Leigh Leopards beating Wigan Warriors 1-0, Castleford Tigers pushing Hull KR all the way, newly-promoted Wakefield Trinity getting over Leeds Rhinos and Hull FC shocking Catalans Dragons – viewers were dismayed by what unfolded in front of them at the Totally Wicked Stadium as Saints ran out 82-0 winners.
And it wasn’t just fans that were annoyed, with Huddersfield’s Burgess expressing his own anguish at the situation.
Burgess posted on X: “Whoever decided this was a good look for our game needs to be sacked, feel sorry for those young lads thrown out there! Sort it out.”
Whoever decided this was a good look for our game needs to be sacked, feel sorry for those young lads thrown out there! Sort it out
— Thomas Burgess (@Thomas_Burgess) February 15, 2025
The former South Sydney Rabbitohs behemoth then followed that up with: “This hould never have been allowed to happen! Never mind round 1 of a new season.”
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>This should never of been allowed to happen! Never mind round 1 of a new season</p>— Thomas Burgess (@Thomas_Burgess) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Thomas_Burgess/status/1890827879895777478?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 15, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>