Mike Tindall: Sam Burgess has the X-Factor but England's wasting it

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Time to change: Tindall wants to see Burgess in the pack
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Chris Jones16 September 2015

Mike Tindall believes Sam Burgess should be used as a flanker and not as a centre, where he has been controversially selected for the World Cup.

Tindall formed an outstanding centre partnership with Will Greenwood during an England career which peaked with them lifting the Webb Ellis Cup.

Watching from the sidelines these days, Tindall points to statistics from the World Cup warm-up games to strengthen his argument that Burgess is not at his best among the backs.

The former rugby league man made only 14metres when England were beating France at Twickenham but Northampton centre Luther Burrell, who did not make the World Cup squad, made 56m against the same opponents in Paris a week later when the visitors were on the back foot.

Burgess is just the latest cross-code midfield player Tindall has watched come to terms with a new game having played with or against Barrie-Jon Mather, Henry Paul and Shontayne Hape.

“I don’t think Burgess is a centre — he is a back rower in my opinion,” he said. “Not because he doesn’t have the ability, it’s about the experience of the position. Burgess played outstandingly well for Bath at No6 in the Premiership Final against Saracens but I am not going to rule him out because he has tremendous will to win.

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“[Head coach] Stuart Lancaster has gone out on a limb with Burgess and you need to use him in the right way. I would have taken Burgess to the Cup as an X-Factor back rower.”

Despite taking a gamble with Burgess and lacking the kind of experience that underpinned the 2003 World Cup triumph, Tindall is convinced this England team will head into the knockout stages as winners of Pool A, containing Australia, Wales, Fiji and Uruguay.

He said: “England have to finish top of their pool and they can win it. The main question around the team is can they win seven games in a row which they haven’t previously done. It’s something New Zealand have achieved.”

Tindall’s one major World Cup regret is rejecting Brian Ashton’s request to replace the injured Jamie Noon in the squad midway through the 2007 tournament when England were runners-up.

The former Bath and Gloucester centre had broken his leg that season after colliding with Leicester’s Toby Flood and time ran out as Ashton finalised his initial squad.

Tindall said: “Brian rang me up to see if I wanted to go out to France and one of my regrets is that I was too honest.

“I should have said fine but I was worried about going out there and playing poorly and said no. When they got to the final I just thought, ‘why didn’t I just say yes’.

“I was way off playing when Brian had to pick the original squad and it would have been touch and go if I could be fit for the first game of the 2007 tournament.”

Mike Tindall is a rugby brand ambassador for leading online sports betting operator Betway. Betway offer more than 30,000 markets, available live and in-play across a huge range of sports.

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