26 each



The St Merge illawarra chokers draw and pommie 'sensation' Sammy Burgess fails to live up to the hype.



Its a good day

You're right Barry ............. Burgess is a flop and the Dragons' season is over, all because of 1 pre-season friendly.





To clarify, although I'm sure Burgess will do okay in the NRL........by no means is he a "sensation". There are a number of young SuperLeague players who are bettter, so if he does shine in the NRL, it will be an embarrasssment to the Aussie forwards.

It's irrelevant how Burgess goes in the NRL. He has already done what he was bought for.



Rusty is a businessman. A GOOD businessman. He knew that by signing a pom and making him out to be the best thing since an indulgence pack of double dipped Tim Tams will increase his clubs profile and have heaps of people buying Souths memberships.



I'm sure Burgess will have a couple of good games. A big hit here, a try there and Rusty will be bigging the guy up like there is no tomorrow. It wouldnt surprise me if he doesnt make him put on one of his old Gladiator costumes for a photoshoot somewhere not too far down the tracks.



Can Burgess handle the big time? Didn't he get all sooky when Rusty (cleverly in front of the media) gave him a membership card for his deceased father? I'm not bagging him out for mourning his fathers death but Rusty is a clever guy. He would have known EXACTLY what Burgesses reaction would have been. It gets Burgess in the papers and yet MORE exposure for his club. I think that was a pretty low shot personally.

Burgess had a good first year here....I think he won Young Player of the Year......but he's not a patch on players like James Graham, Joe Westerman, Ben Harrison etc. He's not a patch on Gareth Ellis for example.



I was surprised when Souths signed him, and I'd be surprised if he makes much of an impact, he didn't do much over here after his first year, once players had seen him twice and worked him out.

So...... you are saying that Burgess is actually WORSE than Gareth Elliss?



My god.



This is worse than I thought.



What on earth is going on with the NRL??



I know we have to help developing nations out, but to take on a player who is actually WORSE than Elliss is quite frankly unbelievable.



Frustrating really when you look at all the young Aussie players waiting to play first grade footy really, but I suppose we do have to be seen to help other nations out

Yes, although Burgess' best position is prop, and Ellis' best position is second row, I've seen them both play everywhere except hooker. And I'd take Ellis everytime over Burgess.



Although I'm glad he hasn't left Saints, I don't understand why NRL clubs have targeted Ellis and Burgess ahead James Graham.



Young Player of the Year in 2006, Man of Steel in 2008, and by some diastance the best forward in SL for the last 3 seasons. Probably the only UK player who'd get into a World XIII at the moment.

I seriously don't think ANY UK player would make a world XIII right now and I'm serious

Well Jammer did make the World XIII team last year ......I think it's picked by the same people who choose the Golden Boot, but not sure.



I'll concede that your backs are way ahead of ours, but the difference in the forwards isn't that much.



I suspect it's about numbers. In Austarlia if you're a good schoolboy footballer/athlete , you play RL or Aussie Rules.



In the UK if you're a good fotballer/athlete at school you play soccer unless you come from one of a handful of RL strongholds.



Although we have a larger population overall , only a minority play RL, everyone plays soccer here. Very few kids are exposed to RL.

So much is always said about the Pommie forwards, but everytime I've ever watched GB/England play Australia the Kangaroos forwards have smashed them.



I seriously think this 'Great British forward' dominating international footy is a mythical creature, much like Cerberus, the Minotaur or Jesus.



Much spoken about but never existed

But then I can't think of an Aussie forward who's dominated international footy.....it's always been the backs.....Inglis, Lockyer, Johns, Langer, Lewis, Meninga, etc



However if we're talking world class forwards, and my definition of world class is someone who would be considered for a mythical World XIII, then Graham springs to mind now and in my time of watching names such as Hanley, Cunningham, Sculthorpe, Ward, Crooks.

If you Poms have all these fantastic forwards, why does our pack of old men always smack your pack's ?



For the record, I think Burgess will be fine, you don't get used to NRL pace in one or two games.

Very unoriginal word filter here...