Quote: RichieS "Given the type of player and attitude Tom Davies has, I have no doubt at all, should he be sat down and the idea of a long-term switch to centre be touted, he would be well up for it. A lot of the attributes we praise him for highly on this forum are all transferable to centre. He returns the ball well, he is strong, he rarely misses a tackle, he has energy in abundance and knows where the try line is. All that is really missing is the positioning and offloads/passes to his winger and with enough work, that would come no problem. You dismissing it simply because it hasn't been done in a long time is just as baffling as not giving it a go at least.'"
I do not dismiss because it has not been done for a long time but because
a) recent attempts at playing wingers in the centre has not worked - centre is a very specialised position especially when defending (and in passing skills) arguably Burgess has previously shown more of those abilities than Davies and he struggled in the centre. Long term maybe Davies (or someone else) could make the switch but it would take time and probably a stint in the U19, or on loan playing there - certainly not in super 8 or cup final games against top opposition where they would be in danger of being walked all over (possibly try it in pre-season) I have nothing against the idea longer term but for now it would be too risky.
b) I think centre is one position where the english game has struggled in general over the last few years, there are not many top class centres around the game currently - we always seem to struggle in Internationals (esp v Aus) in the backs. I wish I knew why (probably a lot of reasons) it is hard to think of a really top class international centre this country has produced for a long time - yet our forwards seem to stand up well enough.
c) Wigan do have other options Liam Forsyth, Jack Higginson for example (and maybe others in the U19s) what we should be doing is bringing one or more of them on - Forsyth showed some good touches when he was playing, although he did make some mistakes but I would like to see how he would go in a full strength team with better players around him than when he was playing. Higginson has only had limited chances (injuries not helping) but both are centres by training/upbringing so surely must be worth trying and persisting with rather than move someone who is playing really well where he is and is probably helping the team more than quite a few others.
I note someone referred to Darrel Goulding - he was always a centre in the academy/reserves - he just got his first chance on the wing .
On here among quite a few poster there seems to be a common call for players to be moved around into unfamiliar positions after any defeat - not just yourself, even I have called for someone else to be moved to 7 but that would be someone who has played there for most of his career (Powell) so would know the role - I think there may need to be some hard choices made at the end of this season as some players have not really stood up well and the right centre position is one of those areas where we have struggled - thank goodness the other centre position looks settled for some time to come.
