But he doesn't have to master any of that. Point him at the opposition, run him off set piece, and see what happens with a big crashballer at 12. Not in decades has any Pommy 12 ever threatened to be the second five-eighths that the ABs use.
Someone like Billy Twelvetrees would have to be filthy about this. The RFU has so little faith in blokes like he and Tomkins in the centres that they're bringing in a league prop to play there.
Can't see this being a success and quite honestly I hope it fails miserably.
I think what holds those guys back is foot speed and agility. Being a fan of both codes and having seen a lot of all of those mentioned players I'd have to guess that Burgess is quite a bit quicker than that lot. Also I imagine their thinking is that being from league he is probably a little more comfortable with a little space around him in defence and trying to catch quicker guys. We will of course see how it works out but I don't think enough credit is given to the ability of converts to pick up the game. It really has to do with personality and those that have failed have been held back by ego or poor work ethic or were never that good to begin with. He is obviously an exceptional athelete - once in a long, long time - and having him on board in the game is going to be positive. The questions can be asked if he ends up being selected for reasons other than development, or if he is shown to not be the goods but is persisted with. For now he remains a marketable, talented league player who wants to play rugby.DeL and Pfitzy, it sounds so simple playing 12. Why didn't/don't we just play Higgers, Rocky, Palu or any other fluffybunny we've had in the back row there. Athletically a few of these guys have offered the same, and if the physical size advantage was all that mattered they would have dominated.
The reason they never played there is because it's not. The backline can be a lonely place in defence and with more space a player can easily be shown up.
The Daily Mail in England (apparently a reputable source on rugby matters) are reporting that Burgess is a done deal.
I would have thought the opposite to be true.
6 & 8 make many more decisions than 12 in a game.
Defending in the 12 channel won't be be beyond him.
There's no way he'd be any more than negligibly quicker than Higginbotham or Elsom pre-Leinster. Also league does not have any more space. That's just a fallacy pushed due to 2 less players on the field. It doesn't consider the fact that in rugby players are in rucks, the halfback sweeps, the 8 drops back, etc. that actually open up space. League is full of gang tackles. See how the bloke goes when he has to make one on one tackles for most of the game, and has a couple of metres space to cover between him and Owen Farrell and Tomkins, as opposed to about 1 metre with a league front rower on one side and then a league centre on the other side.
You know what really worries me about all this, is the potential changes the NRL will do to the Salary Cap to prevent losing star players in the future and potentially poaching some of Rugby Unions as well..I predict big changes will come to the NRL salary cap in the next 18months
Two questions there. Firstly, there really is not a lot they can do to prevent losing existing players. Okay, they might be able to top up the best 30 or so players (many of whom would not make the transition, but any measure would have to include all their best players), but not the next 30 or 50. Yes, they apparently have a lot more money to spend, but, don't worry too much, a fair bit of that is in contras, and they have always managed to waste a lot, or spend it unwisely. Plus they really have to start spending more on international development, if they want to have a genuinely attractive sport in the long-term. And they know it.
Secondly, the notion that they can change their salary cap rules to make it easier to poach players from us. Well, maybe they can. But they then run the risk of alienating a lot of their players (and a lot of rusted on fans as well), plus they can really only offer money. We know that our best players are quite happy to give up greater salaries in return for wearing the gold jersey. That won't change. The salary cap is there for a reason, to stop the silly buggers spending too much. If the NRL decided to offer existing rugby players a top-up, which would have to be huge to attract any of our established stars, you can imagine the uproar in the ranks.
Does anyone apart from Rebecca Wilson (as she espoused on Sky's Sports Night last night), give any credence to the notion that Burgess' motivation to change codes stems from critical comments made by his Souths team mate Inglis and fining by the club for doing unsanctioned promotional work?
Seems to me that there are more than enough positive reasons for his apparent intended move (rather than Burgess' disgruntlement as Wilson described it). Challenging himself in rugby and participating in a more authentic world cup are more likely to be much stronger motivators than a dummy spit with his current league team.