William Burns (born 20 November 1998) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who last played as a forward for the

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint-ve ...

in the National Rugby League (NRL). He previously played for the Penrith Panthers in the NRL.

Background

Burns was born in Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. He played his junior rugby league for Parkes Spacemen. Burns was educated at Red Bend Catholic College, Forbes and at McCarthy Catholic College, Emu Plains and represented the 2016 Australian Schoolboys. He then signed with Penrith Panthers.

Playing career

Burns made his

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

debut for Penrith against the Sydney Roosters in round 24 of the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

. In round 25 of the 2019 NRL season against Newcastle, Burns scored two tries as Penrith won the match 54–10 at Penrith Park. Penrith ended the season finishing a disappointing 10th place and missed out on the finals. On 7 April 2021, it was announced that Burns had signed with

St. George Illawarra The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint-ve ...

in a player swap with

Eddie Blacker Eddie Blacker (born 15 December 1999) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Norths Devils in the Queensland Cup. Blacker previously played for the St George Illawarra Dragons and the Penrith Panthers in the NRL. ...

who had signed with Penrith. Burns played a total of 15 matches for

in the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

as the club finished 11th on the table and missed out on the finals. Burns was limited to only four appearances in the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season is the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest s ...

as St. George Illawarra missed the finals. Burns would play a total of ten games for the club in the

2023 NRL season The 2023 NRL season is the 116th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 26th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams For the 2023 season, the number of teams in the NRL has increased from sixteen to seventeen with the ...

as they finished 16th on the table.

Statistics

*denotes season still competing

References

External links

Penrith Panthers profile
*https://www.dragons.com.au/teams/nrl-premiership/st-george-illawarra-dragons/billy-burns/ 1998 births Living people Australian rugby league players Rugby league players from New South Wales Rugby league second-rows Penrith Panthers players St. George Illawarra Dragons players People from Parkes, New South Wales {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1990s-stub