History will be made on Saturday when six Englishmen play in an NRL match for the first time.

Brothers Sam, Tom and George Burgess will line up under England head coach Wayne Bennett for South Sydney against fellow countrymen Josh Hodgson, Elliott Whitehead and Ryan Sutton in the Canberra team.

The top-four clash, which has been dubbed the "Battle of Britain", will break the record of five Englishman in one match set in 1976 when Penrith's Bill Ashurst, Mike Stephenson and Dave Topliss went up against Manly's Steve Norton and Phil Lowe.

The record was equalled in the 1989 Easts-Wests match, which featured Roosters duo Martin Offiah and Joe Lydon against the Magpies' Garry Schofield and former Bradford Northern pair Ellery Hanley and Kelvin Skerrett.

The tally on Saturday would have been seven if Canberra back rower John Bateman was not sidelined with a fractured eye-socket and the Raiders are set to add a fifth Englishman for 2020 with Wigan stand-off George Williams set to follow Bateman and Sutton to the Australian capital.

"It's a pity John's not playing," said ex-Bradford prop Tom Burgess. "When he signed for Canberra, I was looking forward to the fixture.

"I've known John for years, he came through Bradford as a young lad. He's just a great bloke."

The English NRL contingent, who all keep in touch via a WhatsApp group, has increased to 10 as the Roosters' former Leeds winger Ryan Hall made a comeback from a knee re-construction.

Hall, England's most prolific tryscorer, played in Roosters' NRL 15-10 defeat to Brisbane.

While out-of-contract George Burgess, 27, is set to move clubs this year, twin Tom is tied to Souths until the end of 2023, although he has not ruled out a return to Super League.

"My missus is over in England at the moment," said Tom, who joined Souths in 2013. "She loves it over there, she wants to move there.

"I'd always like to move back to England at some point in my life and have a stint back over there.

"Bradford are on the way back after beating Leeds at the weekend, maybe all the boys from Bradford would go back there one day.

"I've just signed a five-year deal with Souths so it will have to be when Souths don't offer me a contract any more."

Meanwhile, Tom says he may miss the Great Britain tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea at the end of the season as he nurses a long-standing ankle problem.

"It's been a bit sore the last couple of weeks," he said. "It's a bit chronic.

"I sprained it when I first moved here on the hard games, which are a bit different to England, and I never really sorted it out.

"I've played international games at the end of every year so you don't get the chance to have off season under-the-knife operations that everyone has.

"I'll just keep monitoring it and come to a decision at the end of the year."