coach
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Todays England game against the French was my first real chance to see Burgess play.
Let me say first that the standard of play by the poms was pretty ordinary. There first half display bordered on pathetic. Yes they did play better in the 2nd half but that was made to look better because the French were dying on there run. If the poms contimue to play like they did today they will not win another game in this tournament.
But back to Burgess. As I said this was the first real chance I have had to watch him play. I was very keen to see him play if he was anywhere near the player all the hype made him out to be.
NOw you can't base any sort decision on a players ability on just one game and I am not here to do that. I just want to put forward my views on how I thought he played.
He was no where near the poms best forward. I thought that was Ellis. For me Burgess had a very quiet game. Doing very little in attack and defense. For a guy who some say is the best forward in the world I thought he did nothing to show this. Save for one very good run in the last 5 minutes of the game he did not scare the French defense. As for his defense, well he was always around the ball to make a tackle. But he always seemed to be the second man in the tackle. For a guy of his size and supposed ability I expected him to terrorise the French. But he didn't.
He has two games remaining in the tournament against the heavy weights, Australia and NZ. I would expect to see some improvement in those games.
Let me say first that the standard of play by the poms was pretty ordinary. There first half display bordered on pathetic. Yes they did play better in the 2nd half but that was made to look better because the French were dying on there run. If the poms contimue to play like they did today they will not win another game in this tournament.
But back to Burgess. As I said this was the first real chance I have had to watch him play. I was very keen to see him play if he was anywhere near the player all the hype made him out to be.
NOw you can't base any sort decision on a players ability on just one game and I am not here to do that. I just want to put forward my views on how I thought he played.
He was no where near the poms best forward. I thought that was Ellis. For me Burgess had a very quiet game. Doing very little in attack and defense. For a guy who some say is the best forward in the world I thought he did nothing to show this. Save for one very good run in the last 5 minutes of the game he did not scare the French defense. As for his defense, well he was always around the ball to make a tackle. But he always seemed to be the second man in the tackle. For a guy of his size and supposed ability I expected him to terrorise the French. But he didn't.
He has two games remaining in the tournament against the heavy weights, Australia and NZ. I would expect to see some improvement in those games.
