Rob Burrow: Fans to pay respects on funeral route

7 minutes ago

The funeral of rugby league legend and motor neurone disease (MND) campaigner Rob Burrow is due to take place in Pontefract later.

The former Leeds Rhinos star died on 2 June at the age of 41, having spent his final years raising awareness and millions of pounds for research into the degenerative condition.

His funeral at Pontefract Crematorium will be a private service, however members of the public have been invited to line the route of the funeral cortege.

Leeds Rhinos released details of the route, with members of the public asked to be in position from 13:00 BST.

Burrow had a 17-year career that included winning eight Super League Grand Finals, three World Club Challenges and two Challenge Cups.

However, in 2019, two years after his retirement from the sport, he was diagnosed with MND.

In less than five years following his diagnosis, he and his friend and former teammate Kevin Sinfield raised more than £15m for MND charities.

Burrow was made an MBE in the 2021 New Year Honours for his services to rugby league and the MND community, and was promoted to a CBE in the New Year Honours in 2024.

The father of three died at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.

In a poignant final message, which Burrow asked to be shared after his death, he urged people not to “waste a moment” of their lives.

He said: “In a world full of adversity we must still dare to dream.”

Burrow’s funeral cortege will travel along the A656 (Park Road) passing the Xscape leisure complex as it travels towards the M62 junction.

It will continue along the A639 towards Pontefract, passing the racecourse, before turning onto Park Lane (B6134) near Pontefract Tanshelf Station.

The procession will then make its way along Ackton Lane into Ackton, before turning left onto Sewerbridge Lane and Common Side Lane (B6133) heading towards Featherstone.

At the War Horse sculpture the cars will turn left, slowing for a moment at Featherstone Lions ARLFC’s ground on Wakefield Road (A645).

The cortege will slow again as it passes through Featherstone and near to where Burrow played junior rugby, before continuing along Pontefract Lane towards the crematorium.

At that point members of the public have been asked to “leave this part of the journey so the Burrow family can have a few moments to themselves before arriving at the crematorium”.

The funeral route was published to give the public the chance to “pay their respects before allowing Rob’s family and friends to grieve his loss in private”, Rhinos said.

Leeds City Council and the Lord Mayor of Leeds will host a civic reception in honour of Burrow on Friday 12 July at 11:00 BST, which will be live streamed.

Bob Woodhead, who coached Burrow as a junior player at Traveller Saints, which later became Featherstone Lions, described him as a “keen, enthusiastic and polite” young man.

“He was a privilege to coach, to be honest,” Mr Woodhead told the BBC.

“All I wanted to do was to help him progress.

“Despite everyone over the years saying he was too small, I just cast my mind back to (rugby league legend) Roger Millward. Everyone said he was too small and look what he became over his career.”

Mr Woodhead said it was “humbling” to see what Burrow and his family, together with Sinfield, had achieved in their efforts to fundraise for research into MND.

“I think the fundraising will carry on and long may it continue,” Mr Woodhead added.

“Rob never turned anybody away for an autograph, a photograph or a selfie.

“In my eyes he was one of the best players in the Super League era. But as a person, he was just a lovely, lovely lad and I’m proud to have met him.”