Sam Burgess's debut for Bath delayed by broken cheek

Burgess suffered a fractured cheekbone in NRL Grand Final

A bloodied and bruised Sam Burgess during the NRL Grand Final (GETTY IMAGES)

Bath’s bold plan to give their latest big-money signing, the rugby league international Sam Burgess, a crash course in the realities of union life and play him in their first team ahead of the 2015 Six Nations will have to be reassessed.

Burgess suffered a fractured cheekbone in helping the South Sydney Rabbitohs win the Australian NRL Grand Final – his last match in the 13-man code – and must undergo surgery before moving to the West Country club.

“My cheek has gone inwards,” Burgess said, “but the joy of winning is overriding the pain at the moment.”

He also became the first non-Australian to win the Clive Churchill medal for the man of the match. “It feels like I cracked my eye socket in the first attack, but I just played on adrenalin after that and my team-mates talked me through it,” Burgess added.

“I’m sure it will hurt tomorrow, but I would do it all over again. It is a feeling you can’t replicate and I am thankful to play in this position.”

Burgess’s 22-year-old twin brothers George, who scored a second-half try, and Thomas also played key parts in the game watched by a record crowd of 83,833 at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney.

The Yorkshireman has been a huge success since joining the NRL. In August 2013, Sam, Thomas and George, as well as older brother Luke, became the first set of four siblings to play for an Australian top-flight side in the same game for more than a century.