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6 minutes ago
England centre Toby King is grateful to Sam Burgess for reviving his Warrington Wolves career and helping him reach a 10-year milestone with the club.
The 28-year-old fell out of favour at the Wire in 2022 and looked likely to leave the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
King spent the 2023 season at Wigan and won the Super League title there, having been on loan to hometown team Huddersfield for part of the previous campaign.
Burgess’ arrival as head coach for 2024 opened the door for a return, and King will mark his decade at Warrington with a testimonial game against Leigh on Saturday.
“Hopefully the way it’s panned out with Sam coming in, people can see how much I care and I love this club,” King told BBC Sport.
“It was pretty sad really, I’d just signed a long-term deal and then personnel changed in the club and it didn’t seem to work.
“That’s absolutely fine, some coaches want to go down different paths. It could have been it.
“I went to Huddersfield on loan which I enjoyed, and then had a successful year with Wigan where I learned a lot.
“It was mad how I ended up coming back, I’ve been given this opportunity and it’s nice really because it was almost tarnished that I had left and the way it happened, people never got to see the true side of the story. It’s a proud memory that I’ve been here 10 years.”
Sibling success for the King family
Having made his debut in 2014 against London a couple of days after his 18th birthday, King has since become a vital cog in the Warrington backline.
Looking back over his career, the former Meltham All Blacks amateur recalls fondly his time spent in the first-team with brother George – who he could come up against when Warrington face Huddersfield on Sunday, 16 February in Super League’s opening weekend.
“I’d say those younger days with my brother were really special,” King continued.
“Not many people get to play alongside their brother and we played about 100 games here together. Playing in finals and semis was special.
SWPIX“Winning the Challenge Cup final in 2019 against St Helens has to be up there, especially because we were the underdogs and Saints were on fire at that time so to win it under those circumstances was unbelievable.
“It’s not just the specific games, it’s more the things we do with the team, the training camps, the times we go away together. We had a week in Perpignan last year and the team bonding, I don’t think we’ve been closer. In pre-season we went to Tenerife, we all spend time together.”
Much improved, but still potential to achieve
Burgess’ impact can be seen across the board at Warrington, with last season’s third-place finish a great improvement on a side that faltered horribly in the second half of the 2023 campaign.
However, with Wigan winning all four trophies and an equally impressive Hull KR pipping the Primrose and Blue in the play-offs to deny them a trip to both finals, there is still more to come and more to achieve.
“How much we developed last year from where we were the year before, I think we took a lot of people by surprise,” King said.
“We were the best defensive team in the competition and the best attack in the competition, so a lot of credit goes to Sam, Matty Gleeson and Richard Marshall.
“We made the Challenge Cup final and fell short against Hull KR [in the play-offs] so we can’t be given an A, but if Wigan were the A-star then we were a B-plus.”
