Think he will this week. To be fair to burgess he played with an injection in the cc semi, and prob the same against Leeds. Why not play Marshall who knows, maybe wane didn't want to go to Leeds with both kids on the wing. The stats vs Leeds to me proves he's not fit, I know he been off his game last few weeks, but you could never fault his effort, that wasn't even there vs Leeds. Think he will take a spell on the sidelines this week for Manfredi/Marshall.

Burgess hasn't looked right since his injury lay off. If he's being jabbed up to play then why isn't Marshall being selected? Perhaps Waney wanted the experienced Burgess for two big games? Hudds at home and he has to give Joe a rest. Playing Manfredi left wing would put him against McGilvary who's a real handful. Davis must keep his place, Marshall to replace Burgess.
Waney needs to sort out the kicking game, or lack of, also wasting 2 interchanges with MM and Powell. One of them has to do 80 mins giving the forwards 2 more interchanges than at present.
Quite a lot to sort out really when at the business end of the season we'd expect all this to have been resolved months ago.

Yet the Aussies - particularly Queensland in the SOO - swap players across the back five with ease. Perhaps it's all about the quality of the individuals involved......

I sometimes wonder if we buy this line too often.

No doubt it gives their agents great leverage, but if that's what Budgie's agent is still up to, maybe it's time to call his bluff.

Budgie's main asset was always his lightning speed, and if that's now gone - as seemed to be the case at Salford last week - then what overall use is he?

I think it's doubtful that budgie will get another crack at the NRL in my opinion who would take the chance on him,his form over there was patchy at best he simply went too early and since his return to Wigan his form,and speed has been well patchy at best.

I think he does need resting,maybe like Faz last season and his rib the lad is carrying an injury that has yet to fully reveal itself,who knows just me musing i suppose he needs a bit of handling thats for sure and keeping in the side is one way doing that but at what cost as it must be playing on his mind that he's not in any kind of form that we know he was capable of.

Absolutly it is - I wouldn't be surprised if the backs there train in various positions -but and it is a huge but I cannot recall any Wigan player making a success of switching from wing to centre for a very, very long time (Dean Bell the last?). Burgess looked lost at centre when he played there recently and the suggestions of moving someone like Davies there just baffle me - especially whilst we have other options (we have centres out on loan) especially in important games.

I accept that Gelling is not playing well but moving wingers into the centre is unlikely to provide a solution.

Good players don't just become bad players overnight.
I'd say it's a mix of low confidence and possible injury, just something not quite right with him.

For me I don't think he's getting the service that Marshall/Davies have been getting. We are not seeing the ball drifted over to the corners anymore (how many tries has he scored), none since Newcastle when it saved us a point.

Maybe it's all part of the 'boring rugby' stance the club (John Winder) confessed to a few weeks back?

At his age he (Davies) is not really a specialist anywhere. He may have already been tried in other positions, those with knowledge of u19s might have an idea or he could be given a run out at centre/fullback/whatever. We do not have much to lose now.

From what I have seen at u19s this season they are not precious about selecting players out of position. I seem to remember Kibula playing prop, second row, back row and centre across a few games.
As for Aussie sports they are not shy about persuading players to change sports if the feel the potential is there.

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.

Not saying he was world class but I'd call Darrel Goulding's switch a success. Although arguably he was a centre playing on the wing who then switched back to centre. But he definitely played well on the wing in 2010 and then in the centres after that.

How are people talking about Davies at centre? I don't think I've ever seen him pass the ball! He is one of very few players who is doing an outstanding job where he is playing. Let's change things that aren't working, not things that are working.

For me the key reason we lost was that we couldn't make the hard yards getting out of our own half whereas they could easily. I think with better field position, we would have scored more tries, and them less. Wane acknowledges this in his post match interview. The three quarters all made big metres apart from Burgess. Some very unimpressive stats from our forwards bar Bateman and Lockers. Whether you blame the forwards for not getting through enough work, or Wane for having a game plan that doesn't utlise them enough, is another matter. I'd drop/rest Burgess for Marshall this week and give a general kick up the backside to the forwards.

What's happened to Bretherton? Is he injured?

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.