Smiffy27 wrote:
From what I've seen recently and with a recent upsurge in the numbers of centres playing well for England RFU it may be that Sam will struggle to get in (ever??). He's big enough, tough enough and a good distributor but there are other centres with more pace who know the game. If he goes into the pack he has even more to learn.
I think this is it. He is aiming to play centre for England just at the time when they have discovered a couple of creative players (ironically two of them including Eastmond from the RU club he's playing for) capable of outside breaks and neat footwork, after years of being pilloried for having too many battering rams at centre. I actually think that Burgess is a better battering ram than many they have used, and a couple of years ago he would pretty much have got into the England team by now, but the current enthusiasm is for a different style of player. And I agree he'd be best used as a back row forward, but in that case he should focus on the 2019 RU World Cup.
