sorry....bundled you in with Loiner81 there. My bad.....you just questioned my sanity in researching the birth places of 1,000 players and you had a point!

...or simply gets two posters and two posts mixed up?

Well I know he is Irish but really it is stretching the blarney to suggest there was no blame in D'arcy's biased article.

The heading gave a hint as what was to followIt is simply not possible for him to be ready and now we have the poof. Burgess lacks the sense of timing, in attack and defence, required to be effective at international level. His naivety embarrassed those around him and severely damaged England's chances of reaching the quarter finals"

he later said

"Burgess never got to the pace against Wales"

and then

"All Burgess did was run straight in search of collisions with Jamie Roberts (who obliged but really conned him most of the time"[/i

These comments were wholly wrong. Burgess did exactly what was asked of him in that he totally stopped Roberts crossing the gain line and took his threat out of the game. In fact it was only when Burgess was substituted that Roberts got into the game on attack and it was the Union experienced Barritt who embarrassed everyone by running out of the line to leave the space for their try.

Burgess for his part crossed the gain line several times, made several crunching tackles on Roberts and North and ran a good dummy run in the move that led to the England try showing a good sense of timing all round.

With regard to his comments about running straight well he was up against the Wales and Lions centre Roberts who has made a career out of running straight on the crash ball and Burgess was the one who came out on top.



No different to League in that respect. Of course playing together for 50 matches makes it easier so all the more credit to Burgess on his first international against France in the warm up game and to play so well and against Fiji for stepping in off the subs bench with such impact to greatly assist in the bonus point and again inn the Wales match we had the game won before his substitution. So picking Burgess was not an error.



Both codes include running at the opposition as they are contact sports but again in both the clever players run at the inside shoulder where possible but such are the defences in both codes that there will be some collisions and Burgess is equipped to do both.

Moving to the point of the speed of Burgess's selection. This is the nub of where the Union former players are so pizzed off. Burgess has shown that a League prop forward, although very inexperienced in the finer points of Union, is able to make it right through the the World Cup at centre and make few serious errors while providing impact and reliability at the highest level. Not only does this burst the their back slapping bubble but it shows their bias.

What the former Union International players are really upset about is that in Burgess you have a Rugby League prop who in a very short space of time is able to do most of what they did at Union International level just as well. Now because it took a couple of Irish 3 years to learn how to play centre at test match level is rather the point. A top League International already has the key skills to make the switch quickly and as I say this is what has pricked their bubble. (Burgess he can also play at 6 too!)

Because these two have played a lot of test matches does not mean they are the best judges. Being former test players does not mean they make good coaches or pundits. Read the views of Sir Clive Woodward, Sir Ian McGeechan and Jonathan Davies who rate and applaud Burgess. Their status as top International players, coaches and pundits trumps anyone of the anti Burgess brigade

Burgess is able to do most of what D'arcy and O'driscoll at test level just as well?


Is that why he's been dropped for the Aussie game?

I'll leave you to your dream-world.

All the blame lies with the selection. The continued comments referring to Burgess in the article can all be traced back to the initial premise that 'he was promoted too early"...it;s not his fault!
Burgess has taken no more or less flack than the rest of the England side in the press. A few click-baiters have published inflammatory that is designed to drive traffic, which we gleefully respond to but the reality is that Sam Should never have been played at Centre nor against Wales.

SBW played a bit part in RWC 2011....17 minutes including 10 in the bin for the QF/SF & Final. He was used as a sub in the pool game v France too but played against Tonga and Japan. The AB's knew that they needed SBW, but as an impact player.....not as their key centre!

They picked the wrong Bath RL convert....

Burgess has taken no more or less flack than the rest of the England side in the press. A few click-baiters have published inflammatory that is designed to drive traffic, which we gleefully respond to
The original premise you speak of is wrong. This premise was made by people who resented Burgess being in the squad and who laid blame in totally the wrong direction. Hence my argument about an agenda from certain former players who are pals with the second rate "experienced" who were not picked. These same have had plenty of chances to prove they should have been in the squad but they are at best mediocre.

This premise of yours is flawed because the England defeat was not the fault whatsoever of Burgess who had done everything expected of Barritt had he played inside centre. With him on the field England twice had a 10 point lead in the second half which would have been greater had the "experienced" England players not given away silly penalties within kicking distance. It was after Burgess was subbed that the wheels fell off. The "experienced" Barritt making a schoolboy error to let in Roberts for the first time in the game. Followed by a penalty from Brown and failure to take the chance of a draw or win in the last minutes.

Plenty of culprits to choose so why choose one who put in a good performance?

Your SBW analogy proves that he had to overcome some anti league sentiments too. It took NZ a long time to warm to his skills and he was only a sub in their first match in this WC.

May as well change the thread title to RUWC15 or just merge it with the Burgess RU thread.

This clearly isn't about our international game.

Agreed. I wish the mods would take a much stronger line on this (as they would on many other forums).

If Burgess is as good as O'driscoll as you laughably claim then he would get in ahead of Barritt as BOD is in the top 3 centres of all time and Barritt isn't in the top 50, which proves you are talking poop. To be a world-class centre you need to be able to kick well, something that SB did twice and failed miserably, which also proves you are talking poop (if proof were needed).

You are like an 8 year old talking about his favourite comic-book hero