Will Greenwood: Luther Burell has more reason to be disappointed than Danny Cipriani
Friday 28 August 2015 15:51, UK
Will Greenwood has full confidence in Sam Burgess, but says Luther Burrell's exclusion will be the hardest to take.
We finally have our 31 and despite a few leaky rumours pointing us in this direction there is still plenty of debate surrounding the squad.
I feel for Danny Cipriani and of course he'll be heartbroken not to have made the squad, but he came into contention with a late charge - Luther Burrell was England's starting centre for the past two Six Nations campaigns in which England ended up runners up behind Ireland both times.
Burrell went from first-choice 12 to surplus to requirements in a very short space of time and that will hurt. He gave England stability in a position that was crying out for it and he will feel that he'd done enough to warrant a place at the World Cup, but sadly for him he's not there.
Interestingly, if England were to play Wales tonight and the World Cup was on the line, I think they'd play Burrell. His experience would get him a starting place if there was no Barritt to choose.
Because of the significance of seeing a player get discarded at this point in the year it's easy to get caught up in the thinking that the coaches only rate the 31 players they've picked. But the lengthy conversations that happen behind closed doors obviously dispute that.
But Barritt will be the first-choice starting 12 for Lancaster, and that means Burrell was fighting for a squad place as the fourth-choice centre in a pack of four.
It's always easy to look at these things in the cold light of day and say that there was a huge amount of difference between Burrell and Burgess and that's why one player got the nod ahead off the other, but that's not the case.
Gatland's Lions
At the end of England's last warm-up game against France, Clive Woodward and I were asked to pick the squad we thought should represent England in the World Cup. Of the 31 players we named, Lancaster agreed with 30 - with Burgess instead of Burrell the only difference between the two.
Clive and I went with Burrell for several reasons but Lancaster has opted to go the other way for reasons of his own.
There is nothing to say that Lancaster made the right call, but there's also nothing to suggest he's made the wrong one. Whether England win the World Cup or fail to make it out of the pool, there is not going to be any evidence to back up the claim he didn't choose the right man.
In 2013 Warren Gatland picked Jonathan Davies over Brian O'Driscoll at centre in the final Lions Test and there was uproar from the fans, particularly the green-coloured section. The Lions went on to win the Test 41-16, and those who backed Davies said that was vindication for Gatland. But who's to say the Lions wouldn't have won by more with O'Driscoll?
The point is it's impossible to put a numerical figure next to a player, you just pick based on your opinion and you'll never know for sure that a different player would definitely have made a bigger impact.
Is there a seismic difference in value that would be offered by Burrell and Burgess? Of course not; you're never going to be all things to all men and if the call went the other way then we'd be saying Burgess was the unlucky one.
The same can be said about Easter missing out to Morgan, or Corbisiero missing out on a place in the squad.
Midfield riddle
We look on from the edges of the training ground and we see players being called up or dropped. Because of the significance of seeing a player get discarded at this point in the year it's easy to get caught up in the thinking that the coaches only rate the 31 players they've picked. But the lengthy conversations that happen behind closed doors clearly dispute that.
If England played Wales tonight and picked Burgess, it wouldn't concern me in the slightest. I'd be more worried about how our lineout fared, and our performance in the breakdown than I would be about how Sam Burgess performed.
He will run himself into the ground doing a job for England. People say that he doesn't understand the subtleties of the game, but I have some experience in that position and can say with complete honesty that I got lost in the midfield riddle myself on more than one occasion.
It's a tough position but England have four players in the squad that are capable of unlocking anyone's defensive lines and I'm excited to see how they go.
In Barritt and Joseph they have a classy pairing and Henry Slade is only getting better with age. Add the explosive unpredictability of Burgess to that mix and you have a well balanced selection that will do England a good service in the World Cup. Good luck to them all.
