I agree Burt is a liability in some key areas but he is also brilliant (game-changingly so) in other areas. Plus his goalkicking is up there with the best in the game.
With us light on centres, Tahu will (and should) play centre. Jordan Atkins has played some centre and might fill in for Reddy if he's not ready, but I also think Ben Smith is an extremely credible option, since centre is such an important defensive position that we just mightn't be able to find anybody else to cover there.
It's the reason we got rid of Wright - poor defence.
Guys like Filiga and Lasalo, who can play both back-row and centre, would be better off playing back-row this early in their careers because a poor defensive read at centre is more likely to lead to a line-break (and is further from the cover defence). That's why we're better off moving Ben Smith to centre than having a rookie cover for Reddy's absence.
This would also allow both Shackleton and Horo to start, which won't otherwise happen in a back-row that already includes Hindmarsh and Smith.
If Shackleton is to be used at front-row then he shouldn't play back-row in the same match.
With a 4 prop rotation (which pretty much every team is using), you ask a lot of those 4 players and therefore can't expect them to play much more than about 40 minutes a match - they should be making close to 20 hit-ups and over 20 tackles in that time, as well as sliding to cover the gaps on shift plays and continual movement off the ball in attack.
So using one of your 4 front-rowers in the back-row for part of a match means the other 3 have to play more minutes to cover for him. Obviously then, the quality of those extra minutes is reduced.
