I'll be honest, I can't remember ever seeing him do that. Give him space and an open field and he can finish, always has been able to do that, but put a decent tackler in front of him and he'll get tackled. He's never been a winger who could beat a man with a step or drop of the shoulder.

I think we're letting Richards go at the right time. He hasn't been as good as in previous seasons and as others have said previously, the Achilles injury he suffered seems to have had a big negative effect on his game.

He never was the quickest of wingers but he's really lacking pace now. Possibly a combination of increasing age and that injury. He doesn't seem as dominant in the air and just in general across all of his game it seems he's at about 70% of what he used to be capable of.

There was a big difference when Burgess played on the left - he was much more dangerous when given space as his pace allowed him to ease away from defenders. A winger without pace is only really going to be effective from close range.

C.P, where do you sit on the Burgess / Manfredi tussle. Somehow I'd like to see both of them given a chance. I wonder if that is in Wanes thoughts with Burgess playing centre yesterday, or maybe that's my wishful thinking.
Certainly any team that had Burgess, Manfredi, Charnley, Hampshire and Sam in the backline could do some damage.

i think part of the problem is without oloughlin and sam, we really struggle getting the ball to the left effectively. means neither pat nor farrell have had the ball in space recently as the matches where both sam and oloughlin have played have been few and far between. green specifically noticably favours passing left to right.

It seems that selection is pretty simple. Manfredi plays on the right and Burgess on the left, so with a left centre out this weekend Burgess ended up at centre.

If I had to pick one to play on the wing it would be Burgess. I know Manfredi is a stronger tackler but Burgess just has that raw pace and excellent acceleration. He's also brilliant in the air and that's the one thing that puts him ahead of Manfredi. These days someone weak under the high ball will almost certainly be targeted and it can be the difference between making it at the highest level and not.

If I had to pick one to play centre it would be Manfredi. He's got great strength and as I already said, his tackling is very strong. No idea how his handling is for a centre because the U19's provides no real test. He can just try to run through everyone (and usually does).

I can't see them playing in the same side this year unless Charnley and Richards are both out. I don't think either are quite ready to be used at centre.

What I would like to see is Burgess given a game at fullback if (or should that be when) Tomkins misses another game. Hampshire has shown great creativity there but it's not ideal. I don't think he's quite ready for Super League physically but he's at the mercy of onrushing defenders at fullback.
Burgess is just a little bit stronger, much safer under the high ball and his pace should make him a threat from fullback. He might not have the handling skills of Hampshire but his handling isn't poor.

Burgess should bulk up over the next few years and when he does he might be an option at centre. I think he's the most likely to be capable of playing anywhere in the threequarters.