From an Aotearoa Warriors perspective, Ben Matulino's resurgent form isn't ideal with the bigger picture in mind. A rampant Matulino can help the Warriors salvage something from their season, yet Matulino is building towards a move to Wests Tigers next season where he'll partner Russell Packer. For Aotearoa's Kiwis though, Matulino's form comes at a handy time as he's stating his case to replace Jesse Bromwich in the Kiwis World Cup squad.

Matulino's last two outings have seen him run for 134m off 13 carries (vs Cowboys) and 143m from 14 carries (vs Cronulla), two games over the 10m/carry mark. He's rolled through four-straight games playing more then 40 minutes, in fact, of his 12 games this season he has played less than 40 minutes just once. Unfortunately for Matulino, those four-straight 40mins+ games have also been four-straight losses for the Warriors, although Matulino has been one of the Warriors best in all four games.

I've covered this little Kiwis conundrum closely since Bromwich was ruled out and I think there's a nice avenue for the Kiwis to get a tad more grizzly through their middle after going with younger lads over the past 18 months. Adam Blair is the skipper and plays differently to Bromwich, so there's no point chucking him into these comparisons as he's got a different job to do - made possible by Jason Taumalolo's power.

Matulino compares strongly to Waerea-Hargreaves and Packer, leading to a very intriguing situation where these three could be competing for two spots; one starting, one bench. Well, that's if David Kidwell follows my belief of Kodi Nikorima, Martin Taupau and Nelson Asofa-Solomona being certainties on the bench.

Here are their averages this season...

You can make up your own mind, I'm liking the though of Waerea-Hargreaves starting alongside Blair with Matulino off the bench. However, I prefer having Kenny Bromwich on the bench over Matulino to balance out the size of Taupau and Asofa-Solomona. What I'm most interested in though is Matulino being in the picture and as Matulino came back from injury in round eight and really got into his true-Matulino work in round 11, this has obviously been somewhat of a recent development.

Aotearoa is currently in a position where options are available, we've got the troops on deck and don't need to roll with 'default' players. Amplifying the intrigue is the fact that Australia have steam-rolled the Kiwis forwards in their recent patch of dominance, which when you have the game's best play-makers sprinkling their wizardry on top, makes Australia unbeatable. Aotearoa needs a forward pack who can maintain parity, if not dominate Australia and we've got options who are putting their hands up with strong performances.

A couple more notes to ponder:

Kodi Nikorima is likely to benefit in some way from Andrew McCullough's season-ending injury in Brisbane. Even if Ben Hunt moves to hooker and Benji Marshall starts in the halves, Nikorima will reclaim his bench spot and ideally we want Nikorima doing this job in the NRL as it's the job he'll do at the World Cup.

Putting pressure on Nikorima though, is Danny Levi who was dynamic in the Knights win over the Dragons. Levi played 59 minutes and scampered for 68m from 5 carries, splitting the Dragons apart around the ruck when the game was in the balance. I've still got Levi behind Nikorima in that bench utility role, he's not too far behind though and as Newcastle get better, Levi will close the gap.

Also adding their 2 cents into the middle forward conversation is Sio Siua Taukeiaho, who rolled through a staggering 214m from 18 carries in the Roosters win over the Cowboys - not quite Jason Taumalolo's 236m from 21 carries. This may be a surprise to some, those who haven't seen Taukeiaho play a whole lot as he's often injured but these are the numbers he has shown he's capable of over the past three seasons with the Chooks.

Through 10 games this season, Taukeiaho averages 15.4 carries and 145.2m. I certainly wouldn't be mad if Taukeiaho took that remaining bench spot for the Kiwis as it's his speed and footwork that is his point of difference. The prospect of Taukeiaho, Taumalolo and Taupau playing together can only be exciting and if Taukeiaho finishes the season in this sort of form, while the Roosters go deep into the Finals, it may be impossible to not select him.

The longer Tohu Harris is out injured, the closer I look at Manu Ma'u. Ma'u is the ideal Harris replacement as he also plays left edge and as the Eels touched up the Broncos, Ma'u got through a standard dose of 150m from 14 carries in 80 minutes. I'd be happy with Ma'u on the bench if Harris is fit, but at the moment Ma'u is the best left edge forward available.

Joseph Tapine's shift to the left edge in Josh Papalii's absence adds a splash of funk there - Ma'u > Tapine at this stage though. Tapine terrorized the Rabbitohs with 166m from 15 carries in 80 minutes and although Tapine has enjoyed success in the middle where he's rather similar to Taumalolo and Taukeiaho, out on the edge he's nightmare match up.

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