How South Sydney try to keep a lid on the aggression of Sam Burgess

TOM Burgess has admitted that sometimes the Rabbitohs need to tell his brother Sam to tone down his fearsome aggression.

BRONCOS VS RABBITOHS

NO ONE at South Sydney will ever question Sam Burgess and his passion.

It’s a determined drive that lifts the Rabbitohs to another level and one which delivered the proud foundation club its historic 21st premiership in 2014.

“But sometimes Sam has just got to control it,” little brother Thomas Burgess told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

“We help him out there as well by just reminding him that he has got to keep a lid on it sometimes.

“He knows that. You can obviously get frustrated in games, but you’ve got to also be aware that you can hurt the team if you give penalties away.”

There’s no questioning Burgess is the Bunnies’ forward leader.

On Friday night against Brisbane, the British bookend led from the front with his side trailing by 14 points at the break.

Burgess delivered plenty of fire, but was penalised and cautioned twice in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

He then sparked a brawl in the 46th minute after landing heavily on Joe Ofahengaue when the Broncos forward had already surrendered in the tackle.

Burgess copped some criticism for the hit, which some experts deemed late, but the man himself believes it was fair play.

“As long as it doesn’t cost you points or anything it’s not a bad thing,” Burgess said.

“I mean, I actually didn’t think it was a penalty.”

As for his little brother Thomas helping to tone down his aggressive ways, Burgess concedes he regularly walks a tightrope.

“I guess the guys know me on the field and know when to grab a hold of me and give me a slap around the wrists and rein it in,” he said.

Burgess was caught in several scuffles against the Broncos.

“Sometimes we disagree, sometimes we agree and that’s what makes us good teammates and friends.

“But I thought I controlled it well on the weekend.

“The game is physical, we were losing and sometimes you’ve got to try and get something out of the team.”

Burgess is first to admit he hasn’t been at his best on return to the NRL from English rugby this season, but he is slowly getting there.

In fact, he believes last Friday’s match against Brisbane was the fittest he has felt since rejoining the Rabbitohs last November.

“I felt fit again and 80-minute fit,” he said.

“That takes some building.

“When I did my neck it took me a couple of weeks to get back into the grind and fitness again.

“I feel like I’m going in the right direction and hopefully I can start doing a bit more for the team.

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“I thought we showed some better signs about what we are about against Brisbane.

“We still lost 30-8, which is not good enough so we can’t be happy with that, but we can be happy with certain aspects in the game.”

For the Bunnies, their next test will be taming the Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night.

Burgess knows his side must aim up to avoid their fourth straight defeat, even against a Tigers team who were smashed by 54 points last weekend.

“The Tigers had a tough night, but you look at the previous games and they’ve been within a point or a try every week,” Burgess reasoned.

“You can’t take anyone lightly in the NRL these days and we just need to focus on ourselves by tidying up a few areas.”