[quote="PopTart":zt8m589r]Sonny Bill is a good example. You'd think he'd be a flanker but he was at his best at centre. Brad Thorn was just a monster athlete and very adaptable. Great player in both.[/quote:zt8m589r] What was your opinion on Sam Burgess at the RUWC.

[quote="Pat Bateman":3hryx9gr]What was your opinion on Sam Burgess at the RUWC.[/quote:3hryx9gr] He could easily have been great but they just didn't use him properly. I actually went to Gloucester to see him play after he'd just started playing. He got the ball about 3 times at centre in the game but looked destructive when he got it. When he played for England it was similar. They didn't like it because he wasn't scoring at will but they didn't give him a run from deep. When they took him off defense fell apart and they lost. With time he'd have been world class but I'm glad he came back to be honest.

[quote="Pat Bateman":2x6dv95a]What was your opinion on Sam Burgess at the RUWC.[/quote:2x6dv95a] I think Sam was made the scapegoat for England's catastrophic failure at the 2015 World Cup . Whilst I accept he was fast tracked by the coach Stuart Lancaster in to the England world cup squad the truth was the England camp wasn't together as a group and couldn't handle the pressure of a home world cup . Sam wasn't anything like as bad as he was made out to be in that tournament and in my opinion Union being what it is , it was easy to blame the Rugby League lad from Heckmondwike for the complete failure of that England team .

[quote="PopTart":33cwvgw9] Dai Young was unique. Top of his game in Union and became a decent prop....but ecen he was not at the same level[/quote:33cwvgw9] Dai Young and Simon Irvine (England RU junior international) both made their Leeds RLFC debuts away at Halifax in the "A team" on a cold wednesday evening. I actually went to the game that night and it was evident that Dai Young didn't have a clue whatsoever about what his role would entail in the RL game

[quote="BarnsleyTrinity":2xkjfmuf]I think Sam was made the scapegoat for England's catastrophic failure at the 2015 World Cup . Whilst I accept he was fast tracked by the coach Stuart Lancaster in to the England world cup squad the truth was the England camp wasn't together as a group and couldn't handle the pressure of a home world cup . Sam wasn't anything like as bad as he was made out to be in that tournament and in my opinion Union being what it is , it was easy to blame the Rugby League lad from Heckmondwike for the complete failure of that England team .[/quote:2xkjfmuf] He was absolutely used as a scapegoat and done so totally against the facts but the Rugby Union media fell all over themselves at the opportunity to rubbish a Northern lad from Rugby League. In their game against Wales, Burgess absolutely dominated Wales and Lions centre Jamie Robert’s defensively giving him fits while running all over him when in possession. England were ahead on the scoreboard when Burgess was substituted but after he was gone Robert’s suddenly came alive and made the break from which Wales scored and won the game. It was ridiculous to blame Burgess!