Centre is now least important position on rugby league field

You will rarely see a centre burst, like Reg Gasnier, into open field with awe-inspiring acceleration, hypnotising opponents – as the poet Clive James wrote – with “a body swerve off either foot.”

Today’s NRL centres are nailed to one side of the field, given the insistence of coaches to split the field into two.

Suaalii spoke recently about learning the “micro-skills” of rugby union, apparently already seduced by the snobbery that the sport is “more technical” than the 13-a-side variety.

The reality is he now has a full field on which to ply his skills, with rugby union retaining the inside- and outside-centre combinations of Gasnier’s day. (Paradoxically, now that Suaalii has the expanse to succeed as outside centre, or No.13, the Waratahs are considering playing him in the more conservative position of fullback.)

While much has been made of the megabucks RA paid to entice Suaalii to switch codes, the Roosters have a reputation for finding salary cap space for those they wish to retain. Suaalii and Manu were probably bored witless stuck on opposite sides of the field.

Consider the players chosen as centres for NSW. They are usually fullbacks. Sure, Stephen Crichton plays centre for Canterbury and also for the Blues, as does Newcastle’s Bradman Best.

But Crichton will probably move to fullback eventually, and previous NSW coaches – such as Brad Fittler – have preferred club fullbacks, such as Latrell Mitchell and Tom Trbojevic, playing in the centres.

As Fittler says: “There is no salary cap in Origin. How many clubs can afford to have their strike player as a centre? You can’t afford to have a genius in the centres. Their primary job is to feed the wingers the ball, make the correct decision in defence, chase kicks and protect the halfback to some extent.”

If an outstanding NRL outside back can’t play fullback, he prefers wing over centre. The Warriors’ Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was named on the wing for last week’s trial against the Sharks after playing fullback for the club and in the centres for Super Rugby’s Auckland Blues and the All Blacks.

His fellow Warriors wide man, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, is also a former fullback.

Today’s rule-makers followed the NRL coaches into the left- and right-hemisphere game.

However, Parramatta’s Zac Lomax is in a time warp of his own making. He signed with the Eels after the Dragons shifted him from right centre to wing, which he considered to be a less prestigious position. However, his height and agility on the flanks for the Dragons led to his selection for NSW and Australia.

Gasnier’s centre partner at St George, John Riley, says of his position: “We are the forgotten race. Reg and I were really left and right but played together. If the scrum was on the left-hand side of the field, I was closer to the scrum. If it was packed on the right-hand side, Reg was the inside centre and I was outside him.”

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But today’s rule-makers followed the NRL coaches into the left- and right-hemisphere game and allowed scrums that would normally be on the sideline, to be set in midfield.

Robinson, a three-time premiership-winning coach, laments the game’s strictures: “If we don’t break the mould in the formula of teams’ attack and how we move the ball and what risks we take, the current model of how we play centre becomes an arms race that basically entrenches the model.”

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