RUGBY:THE MONICKER Cool Hand Luke will sit well with him. The 24-year-old debutant Wallabies scrumhalf Luke Burgess breezed into his first press conference looking as utterly unfazed as he has done in playing a pivotal and often inspiring role in the Waratahs' unlikely march to the Super 14 final this season. This kid looks to be here for the long haul.
He may be taking over from an Aussie institution - though curiously not the most popular of institutions - in George Gregan, but you believe him when Burgess says he hasn't even given that any thought. Bubbly, ultra-positive, innately good-humoured, bright as a button and a ready talker, aside from a fresh face, a fresh vigour and a fresh voice, he will also be adding something else to the mix.
"Luke has got speed, so he's a genuine threat," said Robbie Deans yesterday. "When you've got playmakers and threats outside him, to be able to threaten that channel on the inside will enhance that. He's a player who's got a lot of courage. He's not afraid of any element of the game, which is good. It means he's unlikely to get traumatised, and just keep bringing it, keep playing, which is a good trait as well."
Mischievously, he begins his story by claiming: "I actually started in Ireland. John Moran was an ancestor of mine about 10 generations ago so I'm actually of Irish ancestry."
Born in Maitland, in the Hunter Valley about two hours north of Sydney, Burgess began playing rugby at the age of 10 in the local rugby club simply to emulate his elder brother.
Scrumhalf was his natural position because, as he chuckles self-deprecatingly, "I was a little guy; cheeky and afraid. I loved running away from big people."
Formative influences were his parents, "who were always very supportive and a coach who sticks out in my mind is a little red-headed coach in Sydney Uni, Nick Ryan. He looks a little Irish, in fact, and he was a fantastic mentor of mine, and he got me through my amateur and professional careers.
"I went to boarding school, played a bit of football there but didn't really play first XVs, or first-grade colts or for the juniors or anything like that, but managed to get into a Brumbies squad about four or five years ago."
Nick Farr-Jones and Joost van der Westhuizen were his heroes, and one of the videos he watched regularly was The Wonderful Wallabies, the 1991 World Cup campaign - "I used to watch that religiously at home in the holidays" - including the great escape at Lansdowne Road against Ireland - "Fantastic game, I hate to bring that up."
The former Australian scrumhalf and captain Farr-Jones says of Burgess: "Luke is a young, vibrant player who puts pressure on the close-in defence with his potential to run in a way the Wallabies haven't seen for a few seasons. He makes sure we're not predictable in that key area of the game. Luke is probably the most complete halfback (scrumhalf) I've seen for a decade."
High praise indeed. Deans has spoken to Farr-Jones about working with Burgess, whose response to the idea is, not surprisingly, brimming with enthusiasm: "I can't think of anyone more experienced or greater to learn from about rugby. The prospect of working with him is very exciting."
Recalling that video and Farr-Jones bringing back the William Webb Ellis Trophy, he says it's something that he's dreamed of replicating, "but that's a bit down the line. First the Irish".
He speaks of Ireland's physicality and disciplined defence and strategists like Peter Stringer and Ronan O'Gara.
Yet this time last year, Burgess was effectively on the professional scrapheap. At the Brumbies his career stalled for four years, in which time he played only two Super games, amid a feeling player power may have kept him at arm's length.
Burgess reasons that the Brumbies style of play was very different "and I couldn't fit into that style as sufficiently as they would have liked.
"I took it on the chin, packed my bags and got up to Sydney and played club rugby as best I could," he says with a big smile. "They (the Brumbies) gave me a great opportunity to develop and being able to learn about professional rugby under George Gregan was fantastic and very important for my development."
Gregan's longevity, Burgess says, is a tribute to his professionalism and his character.
"My goal was always to make a contribution, regardless of selection. Whatever team I played for it was never about myself. It's about helping Australian rugby and learning, and gaining things from rugby that way."
That selfless philosophy will sit well with the Robbie Deans era.
Burgess regrouped at the Melbourne Rebels last year, when he was an influential figure in that side's run to the final of the now defunct Mazda Australian Rugby Championship, and this year's switch to Sydney has paid off handsomely for player and Waratahs alike. "You can't give anything but your best, so that's all I focus on," he says.
Burgess played in 12 of the Waratahs' 14 matches and his instinctive playmaking and sniping were often the catalyst in their late charge to the final.
"I've certainly enjoyed the last week and a half and I'm very excited about getting out there and being a contributor," he says.
"But I don't have a mortgage on the spot. If I don't continually change myself and work as best I can, then Australian rugby's not going to benefit, so that's my aim."
