Burrell insists Leeds must call early shots at Newcastle

Luther Burrell has promised Leeds Carnegie fans he will continue to give everything he has in their fight against the drop ahead of his impending summer move to one of their relegation rivals, Sale Sharks.

The 23-year-old centre has produced a series of strong performances of late which have helped ensure Leeds retain hopes of Premiership survival.

A month ago, when he agreed to join Sale, such a prospect looked remote at best.

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“I’m absolutely giving 100 per cent, I can assure you of that,” said Burrell, whose unwavering commitment in recent weeks has been the source of much praise from head coach Neil Back.

“I spoke to Backy and said I wanted to leave on a high.

“Next year is a new challenge, but I know where my duties lie – that’s with Leeds and I’d like nothing more than to keep this team in the Premiership.

“The last thing I want is to leave a team going down. I’m massively passionate about the club, I’ve loved my time here.”

Burrell is the latest off the club’s Academy production line and has made a place in the backline his own this year after spending previous seasons honing his skills on loan at Sedgley Park, Otley and Rotherham Titans.

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Perhaps not the most ruthless of finishers, he is a bull of an inside centre who breaks the gain-line almost at will.

“I fancy a new challenge and Sale is not too far away,” was Huddersfield-born Burrell’s reasoning for his summer departure.

“I need to be around players like Mark Cueto and Ben Cohen to improve my personal game.

“I want to press on in my career. It’s onwards and upwards, hopefully for both me and the club.”

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To achieve his goal of signing off at Leeds with a second straight ‘Great Escape’ under his belt, Burrell is challenging his team-mates to hit Newcastle Falcons head on at Kingston Park on Saturday, in a fixture that sees the Premiership’s bottom two go toe-to-toe.

He said: “We targeted the Exeter game and next week as the games to get us off the bottom, and to start with a win over Exeter on Sunday gives us a chance to do that on Saturday.

“We knew the Exeter match was going to be a tense game. It was a game of who wanted it more and we showed that it was us who wanted it most.

“We’ll take a lot of belief up to Newcastle, who will be nervous now. They know we will be coming after them.

“We’ve got to go out there all guns blazing, try to shut them down and finish them off, because they are full of passion and if we give them any sort of opportunity, they’ll hurt us.”

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