Nick Koster and the positional debate

I see an interesting debate has emerged on Keo.co.za around the management of WP and Stormers loose forward Nick Koster and I thought it might be interesting to get a bit of feedback from other rugby coaches...

The topic is moving a player out of their favoured position to

A) Make space to accommodate their skills
B) Remoulding of a player

For those who don't know, Koster is a highly rated young loose forward. He made a big impact in the limited time he hit the turf for WP in 2008 and a lot is being expected of him in the Super 14 and Currie Cup this year.

The debate now comes up in that Stormers coach Rassie Erasmus has decided to run Koster on the wing during training and people are questioning whether he should be left to mature as a loosie or play a dual role of loose forward and wing.

Kabamba Floors and Ruan Pienaar are two other South African players who have been shuffled around their respective sides with mixed success in the last few years.

Floors played the odd game at wing while being a traditional loose forward while Pienaar was such a good natural ball player that he was shifted around the Sharks (and Springbok) backlines as a wing, scrumhalf, flyhalf and fullback.

The question is - is the player being handicapped by being played out of a position or is he simply a new breed of player being able to move seamlessly between the forward group and the backline?