Look, I'm not exactly jumping over the moon about Burns, either. But unless we are going to cut the guy loose (expensive) we're just going to have to learn to live with his limitations.

Right now he's fit. Which is more than we can say about Walsh. And we know that Burns & Wilkin can function as an effective partnership. Indeed, Saints' best form was with that pairing.

Sans any other suggestions I think we should go with those two and take Walsh out of the firing line. Who knows - maybe a few weeks away from the pressure will be the spur he needs. I bloody hope so.

To be fair to Quinlan - he was always on a loser coming into a club at such short notice with the kind of creative difficulties we are experiencing.

Most oversees players need anywhere between six and twelve months to find their feet. Given that no-one in Australia seems all that sure about whether he's a half or a back it's lunacy to expect him suddenly to start tearing up it up.

On a wet pitch his size is a real problem, tho. Personally I think he should have come forward a bit more often and provided some kind of variation out of the dummy half. He is pretty quick over the first twenty and he has very good hands. At least it would have made Huddersfield think twice about stacking up to defend against Roby all the time.

The funny thing is against Warrington he did precisely that. And it worked. Whether he was told not to go forward - or he just couldn't be d, who knows?

I don't disagree with what you say apart from the size bit. It doesn't bother the likes of Matty Bowen, Lomax etc

Just a thought, and probably not for this season but the following two years of his contract: might Burns give us better service as a rotation hooker? It would suit his competitiveness and would take pressure off his decision making in defence. Then we could slot someone else into 6, whether that's young Richardson or a signing (*cough*Eastmond*cough*).