The South Sydney Rabbitohs have confirmed that 2024 will be the final year in the cardinal and myrtle for Thomas Burgess who will head back to England at season’s end.
Burgess, who has played most of his rugby league career in Australia, returns to Huddersfield on a three-year deal after the completion of the 2024 season.
Although the move is finalised, Burgess’ eyes are set firmly on helping the Rabbitohs towards another premiership in 2024.
“I’m happy to know that my future is sorted but my immediate focus is on winning another premiership with South Sydney,” Burgess said.
“We have a huge eight months ahead of us as we work towards our combined goal of winning our Club’s 22nd premiership.
“I’m excited about what’s ahead here at Souths, and in England after that having the opportunity to take my young family back to the home land, but I won’t be distracted from playing my role in my team throughout 2024.”
As for his move to Huddersfield, the area is not foreign to Burgess, as it is both close to where he grew up and where he went to school, so the forward is pleased to return to the area.
“I feel real good actually, about getting it all sorted and obviously I have been looking at potentially coming back to the Super League for the last few years but now I re-signed with Souths until the end of the year, but no I’ve been really fortunate to get in touch with Huddersfield, we came to an agreement,” Burgess continued.
“One thing I am really excited about coming back to Huddersfield, it’s really close to where I grew up, where I went to school, bringing my young family back there and it’s going to be really cool to come back to where it all began with a great club like Huddersfield Giants.”
Giants Head Coach Ian Watson is ecstatic to have a prop of Burgess’ calibre joining Huddersfield from 2025 and says he fits the profile of what they want perfectly.
“You only have to look at his career, winning the NRL and consistently being one of the best within the international game, we’ve been on the lookout for a big middle, and Thomas fits the profile of what we’ve been searching for, it’s also great to have another English middle in our pack,” Watson said.
“We heard that Tom may be available within the next year or so, so we touched base, and I had a conversation with him just about Rugby for about an hour, and then received a call from his agent notifying me that he would be interested in joining the Giants, it moved quick from there really.