A young bloke from Tokoroa rolled out one of the greatest international rugby league performances a few weeks ago and Joseph Manu has slotted straight back into hearty mahi with Sydney Roosters. Manu's most recent outing in the Roosters win over Broncos featured a low key battle against another fabulous centre Deine Mariner and in a mark of Manu's ability, this wasn't a fair battle.

Not because of their respective abilities, but because Manu does everything on a footy field. While most NRL centres sit on their edge with rugged runs sprinkled into their workload, Manu commands a variety in involvements as he sniffs around random opportunities as well as executing set-plays across the field. Take this Roosters shape for an Angus Crichton try where Manu joins James Tedesco as decoys out the back...

That's the Roosters right centre sweeping around the left edge and defenders would be on high alert for Tedesco sweeping, let alone Tedesco and Manu. In this game Manu also had 4 dummy half runs for 49m which wiggles out to 12.25m per dummy half run. This was the most of any Roosters player and Broncos hooker Billy Walters had 4 dummy half runs for 17m (4.25m/run). It's rude to compare Manu to Mariner in this context, so let's widen the scope to all of Broncos outside backs; Manu had 4 dummy half runs and the Broncos outside backs combined for zero dummy half runs.

Manu even had a kick for Roosters and he's kicked in four of the last five games, registering 2 forced drop outs this season. As of Saturday morning, Nicho Hynes is the only player who kicks and has more offloads than Manu. Two skills that very few players can deploy at this level and Manu did all of this at the highest level of rugby league in his legendary Aotearoa Kiwis performance.

With 4 kicks for Aotearoa, Manu had more kicks than Dylan Brown. Manu also had 7 dummy half runs for 105m (15m/run) and these threads now run across all of Manu's footy as he pops up everywhere looking for the footy, while also having the skills to execute any play his roaming requires. Here are Manu's performances from that Kiwis Test and the four NRL games since...

Aotearoa Kiwis vs Tonga: (fullback) 32 runs - 401m @ 12.53m/run, 1 linebreak, 1 linebreak assist, 7 tackle busts, 2 offloads, 3 tackles @ 100%, 4 kicks - 51m.

vs Panthers: (half): 17 runs - 160m @ 9.41m/run, 1 try assist, 14 tackle busts, 2 offloads, 16 tackles @ 84.21%, 4 kicks - 75m.

vs Dragons: (half) 2 tries, 16 runs - 194m @ 12.12m/run, 3 linebreaks, 2 try assists, 15 tackle busts, 14 tackles @ 93.33%, 2 kicks - 32m.

vs Sea Eagles: (centre) 1 try, 23 runs - 204m @ 8.86m/run, 13 tackle busts, 3 offloads, 11 tackles @ 68.75%.

vs Broncos: (centre) 15 runs for 162m @ 10.8m/run, 3 tackle busts, 3 offloads and 18 tackles @ 78.26%.

Three different positions and Manu has been excellent, with legendary mahi in the Test arena. Manu's 12 try assists and 13 linebreaks in the NRL this season also sit has career-best marks, while his 10 tries so far this season is tied with last season. Not only did Manu go bonkers for Aotearoa Kiwis at fullback, Manu is on track to register the most tries, try assists and linebreaks of his seven NRL seasons.

Roosters have won their last four games and in the middle of round 21 they sit in 7th. Cracking finals footy once again is highly likely and as everyone buzzes about Roosters weapons, Manu could be their most influential player as the season hits a climax. Well, an NRL climax because Manu seems certain to start at fullback for Aoteaora Kiwis at the World Cup later this year.

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