'Twickenham is a massive carrot' - Ryan Burrows and Yorkshire RU ready for county final

Then the guilt is quickly overcome by excitement at the prospect of something he has never achieved in a professional career spanning a decade and a half with Rotherham Titans, Leeds Carnegie, Newcastle Falcons and Coventry.

Specifically, representing his senior county side at Twickenham, which he will do today when Yorkshire’s men’s team take on Kent in the final of the Bill Beaumont County Championship.

Yorkshire may have won this tournament 15 times down the years, but perhaps symptomatic of a wider decline in the professional game in this county, its amateur representative side has not been to headquarters in 16 years.

“Joe Makin, who has always been around National One and National Two with Hull Ionians, has been part of this senior set-up for 14 years and never once been to Twickenham,” says Burrows.

“He’s been captain for about 10 of those years as well, and a great servant. Fortunately I’ve been part of it for two games and we’re off to Twickenham. I’m pleased for people like Joe who have been turning out for the county for so long.”

Burrows took some persuading to turn out for Yorkshire. He left the professional game two years ago when an opportunity to become a teacher in his native Rotherham came around. Personal tragedy had also given him a new perspective.

“During my time at Coventry my brother passed away,” says Burrows, now 36, who has spent the last two seasons playing in the amateur fourth tier with Sheffield.

“Sometimes stuff like that happening makes you realise rugby isn’t the be all and end all. I’d had a good crack at it, but I was getting old for that standard and I had a perfect opportunity to drop straight into full-time work. I still had the itch to play and picked up the part-time gig at Sheffield.

“I got asked to play for Yorkshire last year but I just wasn’t in the right mindset, I just wanted to enjoy the off-season. But when they asked me again this year, I sat down with Pete Taylor and he really sold it to me. ‘We want you’, he said, ‘you’re going to be a big part of it for us’.

“Luckily my wife backed me, and it’s probably the only thing I’ve not done at senior level, represent Yorkshire - so why not do it while you can? The potential of helping get Yorkshire to Twickenham was a massive carrot.”

They only needed two wins to get there. Two seasons ago the team led by former England player Dan Scarbrough won all three group games but didn’t make it to Twickenham.

“As a product it’s massively under-appreciated, I’ve been very fortunate to have a professional career and play in some big stadiums and some big games,” says Burrows.

“But for these lads I’m with now, what have they got to aspire to? Having been part of it, I can see there’s some good rugby being played.

“That Yorkshire-Lancashire game the other week was a Championship-standard game.”

There were 800 fans at Hull Ionians for that Roses game. On the same day, the women’s team booked their trip to Twickenham, their final with Surrey follows the men’s this afternoon.

“Hopefully we get a good following, especially with it being free entry,” laughs Burrows.

“I’d like to think across the men’s and the women’s teams the clubs unite and celebrate what we’ve achieved.”