Burgess made his Bulls debut against Leeds in 2006

Hollywood star Russell Crowe still hopes to bring Bradford Bulls prop Sam Burgess to the NRL.

Crowe, who has a controlling interest in South Sydney Rabbitohs, said: "He is very keen to join South Sydney, he has one green eye and one red eye already."

The 20-year-old is under contract with Bradford until the end of 2010.

Burgess has already attracted the attention of several other NRL clubs, with Manly Sea Eagles and Wests Tigers also interested.

Crowe, though, believes South Sydney are in the driving seat for the signature of Burgess following their capture of Brisbane Broncos prop David Taylor for next season.

"He is a big fan of Dave Taylor and played against him in schoolboy internationals and he is keen to play in the same team as him."

We still have a bit to go to get Sam but we are not far away and confident South Sydney chief executive Shane Richardson

Bradford are keen to keep hold of one of their prize assets and are likely to want compensation to allow Burgess to leave before the end of his contract at the end of next season.

South Sydney chief executive Shane Richardson shared Crowe's optimism that Burgess will be pulling on the red and green jersey soon.

"We still have a bit to go to get Sam but we are not far away and confident," Richardson said.

"He is contracted to Bradford for next year so I don't want to comment about when he will come, but the sooner we get him here the better."

Burgess became Great Britain's youngest forward since Andy Farrell when he made a try-scoring debut in the home series against New Zealand in 2007.

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