considered a specialist kicker. Many commentators said that he was restricted from playing more freely in a counter-attacking role, while not in his favoured fullback position. Burke himself has stated that he always considered himself a fullback and that the decision to switch him to outside centre was a mistake. Complicating matters for national selectors, the Australian National Rugby Team now became saturated with a flurry of traded National Rugby League 'convert' players ready to replace aging back-line first generation professional players such as Burke (Rugby Union was only made a professional sport in 1996). Burke was otherwise retained as vice-captain and goal-kicker for the 2002 season. That year, he famously kicked a penalty after full-time to win the Bledisloe Cup in windy conditions at Stadium Australia – one of the last times his influence was crucial to the outcome of a match (and incidentally, the last time Australia held the Bledisloe Cup as of 2019). Rugby World Cup 2003 In 2003 he was given back the starting fullback position, one last time – but ultimately did not perform well enough to retain it. Midway through the 2003 Rugby World Cup he was axed from the starting line-up following a narrow pool win over Ireland (17–16); a match in which he was substituted after 64 minutes. He was replaced by former professional rugby league footballer Mat Rogers, which drew mixed reactions and he would be relegated to the bench for the rest of his test career. By this time Mat Rogers was already the starting goal-kicker (after being brought on the field as a substitute in the world cup pool game against Namibia, Burke was signaled that Rogers was to continue as primary kicker by the coaching staff after attempting to take the ball from him for an attempt at goal) and he, along with Chris Latham, had finally emerged as the two preferred fullbacks. Future wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock had also simultaneously become the leading outside centre. Further diminishing the aging Burke's place on the team was the fact that there were now at least four other recognised goal-kickers in the team – Mortlock, Rogers, Matt Giteau and Elton Flatley – who all admirably performed as replacements to Burke. However Australia, to date, has never again had a regular goal kicker with a similar tenure. Final year with the Waratahs In 2004, any hope of rekindling his international career