Once upon a time, in the land of the long white cloud, there used to be a shortage of halves. Everybody and anybody would be selected to partner Stacey Jones for Aotearoa, now as rugby league rises, as the #KiwiNRL takeover settles in for the long haul, we're graced with experienced play-makers and youngsters who are all seeing their careers overlap with the best to ever do in Benji Marshall. This positional lack of depth has now shifted to the centres, where other than Dean Whare, Aotearoa haven't had the luxury of competitive depth.

While not on the same level as the halves situation of the past 20 years - no position is on that level - it's just interesting how Aotearoa's depth flows between positions. We're not quite at Australia's level where there are three or four high-quality options in every position and the current predicament at centre is going to change dramatically over the next few years.

Joseph Manu and Esan Marsters are two young centres who are fantastic Aotearoa Kiwis prospects and they've shown potential in their brief NRL careers thus far. They could be the Kiwis centre combo in a few years time, they will at least compete to fill a spot as Whare moves into his twilight years. Neither is in this Aotearoa Kiwis World Cup squad though and the centre predicament is evident in the selection of Peta Hiku, who has been plucked out of Super League footy where he's been playing centre for Warrington Wolves.

Hiku has been playing well for sure, although it's a different beast playing centre consistently in the NRL compared to the SL; one week you're marking Michael Jennings, the next week you're marking Dylan Walker, then you've got Josh Dugan, then you've got James Roberts, then Will Chambers, then Konrad Hurrell and then Whare.

I've loved the Hiku revival, which hit a climax with Hiku being named in the Kiwis squad and signing with the Warriors. But, considering Hiku fell out favour at Penrith Panthers as Whare, Waqa Blake and Tyrone Peachey were all viewed as better centre options and was then forced to spark that revival in England, Hiku wasn't really on anyone's radar for a return to the Kiwis. Hiku is now in a battle with Brad Takairangi for the other Kiwis centre spot and this is one of the most intriguing decisions that Kidwell has to make.

In theory, Takairangi is the likeliest option. After a strong seasons where he consistently started at centre for Parramatta Eels, Takairangi has the advantage of coming in hot off a season in which the Eels established themselves as a genuine top-tier NRL team. This means that Takairangi's brings confidence and is arguably the best-performing outside back selected for Aotearoa, this season. He's done a job for Brad Arthur, a coach who places an emphasis on defence and the results showed this season, plus Takaraingi offers an attacking package that can lead to a positive result in a two-vs-two situation (centre/wing vs centre/wing).

And that's one of the leading factors in my assessment of centres; do I have vision of them in my memory bank putting a shimmy or step on their opposition centre to create an offload for their winger? Takaraingi and Hiku are both big enough that opposition centres struggle to handle them by themselves, they have enough footwork to get between the centre and wing, plus they both have the skills to either feed their winger quickly or offload in the tackle.

What has me leaning towards Takairangi is that he also has shown defensive nous this season with Parramatta. Their attacking ability is fairly similar, yet Takairangi executed his defensive job for Parramatta consistently in the NRL. Hiku wasn't playing in the NRL.

Gerard Beale offers cover for centre as well, although he's behind Takairangi and Hiku.

Kidwell can't really lose with this decision and while I'd prefer to have three or four genuinely-super-duper-legit NRL centres competing to join Whare in the centres, Takairangi and Hiku are reasonable job-doers. All they have to do is make their tackles, operate wisely in the defensive structure and then feed their wingers, or create chance for their wingers.

I've got Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Jordan Rapana as the best wingers and neither needs much space to score in the corner, so Aotearoa's centres only need to manufacture half a metre or a metre for either winger to fly into the corner. And that's if the play-makers haven't manufactured that space further in-field, thus meaning that the centres only need to shovel the footy on. Either way, Aotearoa will have a nible-footed, skillful centre on the opposite edge to Whare.

Perhaps this will mark the beginning of the next phase of kiwi rugby league's rise as Takairangi and/or Hiku emerge as true-blue international calibre centres. After that we've got the young prospects ready to come through and that'll mean depth in all positions.

Peace and love 27.

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