Being an Aotearoa Kiwis fan means that you are well acquainted with ever-changing halves combinations, let alone players with little NRL halves experience playing in the halves for Aotearoa. Thinking back, the variety and weird combinations we've seen were pretty crazy and even now, as I ponder how slick Shaun Johnson and Kodi Nikorima were in the win over Australia, Kieran Foran looms as the elephant in the room.

That's not to say that Foran will be back in the Kiwis mix - there is every chance we never see Foran represent Aotearoa again - but an example of how Kiwis halves combos have solely existed in a state of flux. The hope was tangible, that Johnson and Foran would work together for many years to come and now here we are, reflecting on Johnson and Nikorima's fine performance as a combo.

First things first; they both play in the halves every week in the NRL. That's amazing and I believe such consistency in playing these roles translates nicely into their Kiwis combination. Watching Nikorima play for Brisbane Broncos has been a wee bit frustrating as he and Anthony Milford stutter their way through big games, yet the development of Nikorima into a job-doing halfback who can add sublime razzle razzle on top of his basic role has been encouraging. This came to climax at Mt Smart for Aotearoa as Nikorima played his role, taking a back seat to Johnson but ensuring that Johnson could execute his own antics.

Johnson is fairly similar to Milford, hence Nikorima's consistent footy alongside Milford has culminated in a Kiwis win as the respective roles of Johnson and Nikorima weren't too different from their NRL duties. Johnson thrives alongside an organiser directing traffic which is Blake Green at the Warriors and Nikorima is learning his trade as second-fiddle half; second-fiddle to Milford and second-fiddle to Johnson.

As you'll see below, Johnson and Nikorima weren't bound to right and left duties. Coach Michael Maguire and his gang of coaches offered a bit more freedom and funk for their halves, which resulted in a variety of different shapes and attacking schemes being used. However, even though they were both able to drift around and set up in different spots, Johnson had far more touches (67 vs 46) and kicks (17 vs 3) than Nikorima.

That clearly outlines a dominant half and a second-fiddle half. The beauty here though is in Nikorima's efficiency, within his role alongside Johnson. For example, Nikorima almost had as many passes as Johnson (41 vs 44) despite having fewer touches on the footy which translates into Nikorima being more of a distributor of the footy.

We can narrow that down to Nikorima averaged a pass every 1.12 touches, while Johnson made a pass every 1.52 touches. As the half tasked with sparking the attacking movements, Johnson also had 3 dummy-passes and Nikorima had none. All of which combines to offer clarity in the nuances of their respective roles.

Johnson's kicking game was sizzling, primarily because his long/mid-range kicks found grass and pegged Australia down in their own territory. Combine that with ruthless defence in early tackles and Aotearoa dominated the flow of the game. Nikorima on the other hand, only had 3 kicks but forced 2 drop-outs.

There was a forced droppie from Johnson as well, this however shows the development of Nikorima and how he is building into the halfback role. When required, Nikorima stepped up and gained an awesome result twice in forcing drop-outs; Nikorima played within himself and didn't try to take jobs away from Johnson.

I have never been a fan of Johnson doing everything and we have seen how this has played out for the Warriors. It may look like he's doing everything when we compare touches and kicks, however Nikorima handled a lot of the nitty-gritty halfback duties to allow Johnson to simplify his game. Australia couldn't suss out if Johnson was going to run, kick or pass because he was doing plenty of all three, making it incredibly difficult to defend Johnson. Most of which stems from Nikorima doing his job.

The shapes on offer intrigued me as well...

Johnson on the right with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak swooping.

Jared Waerea-Hargreaves playing shifter, shifting the footy to Nikorima on the left.

At this stage it looks as though Johnson and Nikorima are playing right-left and those two snaps are from the same set. But then…

Nikorima is at first-receiver, with Johnson out wider on the left. Nikorima has three passing options, with Johnson being the obvious threat but he hits Martin Taupau who then offloads for a try.

This time Nikorima is at first-receiver on the right, with Johnson swooping out the back two passes wide of the ruck.

Nikorima has set up out of shot, left of the ruck and Waerea-Hargreaves passes to Johnson. Waerea-Hargreaves is again the shifter and Johnson is again two passes wide of the ruck.

Nikorima at first-receiver, Johnson two passes wide. This is extremely funky though as it’s the last tackle and you can see at the top right, Joseph Manu has pushed up to anticipate a kick from Nikorima. Instead, Johnson gets the footy and the Kiwis play what they see.

Johnson runs across field, which instantly sparks Adam Blair, Jesse Bromwich and Kevin Proctor into action as the run the unders line. Johnson boosts into the space, putting Manu (who has reacted) on the outside of Latrell Mitchell.

The trends there are Nikorima playing first-receiver and Johnson playing out wide, where he has more time and space to cause a ruckus. Ken Maumalo’s no try came from Waerea-Hargreaves passing to Nikorima, an example of the variety in the attacking schemes from Aotearoa and also an example of Nikorima’s job-doing efficiency. Nikorima didn’t get too much footy two passes wide, but when he did, Nikorima posed a threat.

This was joy to watch, mainly because we saw Nikorima and Johnson playing more like the numbers on their backs and not confined to one side of the field. Playing this way, makes the most of Nikorima’s progress as a halfback in setting up the shapes and Johnson’s strengths which is his triple-threat (run, pass, kick) out wider, on the edges.

As long as the Kiwis maintain parity with England’s forwards, we should be able to see more of this over in England. More time training will be glorious for Nikorima and Johnson, as well as Watene-Zelezniak who provided skillful fullback touches that he’s not perhaps known for. Let alone how these play-makers build on their already sublime combinations with Manu at right centre and Esan Marsters at left centre.

Maybe this is the halves combo to take Aotearoa forward. Outside of injury and unavailability, having Nikorima and Johnson playing in the halves consistently is going to be enjoyable viewing. There will definitely be mediocre outings, however the development on top of what we saw at Mt Smart is what has me eager to see them in action again.

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Peace and love 27.