Former NRL champion George Burgess is gearing up to participate in an intense and unusual new Australian sport where massive athletes collide at high speeds, sparking criticism from a prominent neuroscientist.

Burgess will feature in the RUNIT Championship League ctournament in Melbourne on Wednesday, with $20,000 in prize money on the line. 

This sport entails two competitors—one carrying a rugby ball and the other attempting to tackle him—charging towards each other with full force on a narrow 20-meter by 4-meter field dubbed the ‘battlefield’.

Savage impacts are the result, and according to RUNIT, ‘victory belongs to the one who dominates the collision’.

Burgess isn’t the only football star drawn to this emerging combat sport; Melbourne Storm’s Nelson Asofa-Solomona had also been a prominent voice for the league through videos and online promotions until he recently announced a departure from the group citing a ‘fall out’.

Western Bulldogs AFL star Jamarra Ugle-Hagan presented a trophy at a RUNIT event as an ambassador for the sport, and former Super Rugby and Fijian Test star Nemani Nadolo will also feature in Wednesday’s tournament as he takes on Burgess.

RUNIT plans to hold an event in New Zealand next month before expanding to the UK, USA and Saudi Arabia later this year.

Asofa-Solomona explained that the idea behind the sport is to ‘find the biggest hitters and ball runners who didn’t get an opportunity [in top-level footy] through injury, family issues etc and give them a crack’.

One of RUNIT’s promotional videos compares the sport to America’s Power Slap fighting promotion, which sees competitors deliver open-handed blows to each other’s faces, with neither making any attempt to get out of the way.

The nature of RUNIT has seen it come in for stern criticism from leading neuroscientist Dr Helen Murray, who is also an expert on the deadly brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can be caused by the sort of repeated blows to the head commonly suffered by footballers.

‘From a CTE standpoint, we know that exposure to repeated head acceleration events is the biggest risk factor for CTE pathology, and therefore finding ways to reduce these impacts in contact sports is a priority for player safety,’ Murray told the New Zealand Herald.

‘It appears there is no attempt to mitigate head acceleration events in this activity and the risk of significant injury is high, given the intent to collide, so I do not support it.’

RUNIT organisers stressed that competitors must go through a screening process before being allowed to participate, and that safety measures are in place.

‘Yes, a knockout can potentially occur, but this is not the aim of our game,’ RUNIT organisers said.

‘The aim is to dominate contact – whether you bump someone over or land a good, clean hit.

‘We disallow tackles below the waist and above the shoulders. A knockout, like any other combat sport, is a byproduct.

‘Unlike any other combat sport, however it is not our aim.

‘Athletes are screened by a doctor pre and post matches, medics are present, and medical waivers inclusive of drug and blood tests are completed prior to any participation.’

RUNIT has also condemned a viral video showing a man displaying severe concussion symptoms after being hit in a very similar event that’s not connected with the league.

The footage shows the man being knocked out cold with his right arm jerking uncontrollably as he lays on the ground while spectators run onto the playing surface.

He appears to be suffering a fencing response, which can occur when someone suffers an impact strong enough to cause a traumatic brain injury.

‘It highlights the level of differentiation between our league and these other backyard-type events,’ RUNIT organisers said.

‘What we saw in that video is thoroughly disappointing – the lack of care, the filiming and running in of children and spectators whilst a man was clearly seizing on the ground.’ 

Burgess’s involvement with RUNIT comes three years after he played his last game of NRL as he ran out for the St George Illawarra Dragons. 

The former prop forward’s gambling addiction has been a matter of public record, and he has been open about attending rehab to help deal with it.

When he joined the Dragons after two years back home in England, he became the first man to play professional rugby league following hip-resurfacing surgery.

But his comeback was overshadowed in March 2022 when he was charged with sexually touching another person without consent, after he went to a woman’s house to drop off a signed jersey for a charity event. 

He was later acquitted by a magistrate.