Super League centres tend to be the rock of the backline; communication with the second-rowers on their inside and the wingers on their outside is key in order to ensure a tight ship in defence, but also fluency in attack. Centres also come in all shapes and sizes with the likes of Jake Webster and Junior Sau sporting a greatly contrasting physique to the likes of Mark Percival and Iain Thornley. Here are five of the best in the 22 years of Super League so far:
Keith Senior
Keith Senior began his career with the Sheffield Eagles, debuting in 1994 and was part of the Sheffield side that shocked the world with their Challenge Cup success over Wigan at Wembley in 1998.
Senior scored 56 tries in 140 appearances for the South Yorkshire side before a move to Leeds - and the west part of Yorkshire - came about on the last day of the 1999 Super League season. It was at Leeds where the rangy centre went from a very good player to an exceptional one.
Over the course of 12 years at the Rhinos, Senior scored 171 tries in 365 appearances. And, by the time he hung up his boots in 2011, he held the record for the most Super League appearances at 413 and the most Super League tries with 199 before being overtaken by Paul Wellens and Danny McGuire respectively in 2012. The 6 ft 3 centre won four Grand Finals with the Rhinos as well as two World Club Challenges.
Senior's club form for both Sheffield and Leeds unsurprisingly earned him Great Britain and England call-ups.
In fact, Senior made his Great Britain debut as young as 20 in 1996 and went on to score 12 tries in 33 appearances for the Lions as well as two tries in 10 for England. Senior was a fantastic, physical talent - albeit sometimes overly aggressive - and became one of the most feared three-quarters in the British game throughout his 17-year career.
Jamie Lyon
Though he played just two seasons in Super League, Jamie Lyon made a name for himself in such a short space of time quite like no other Australian import. Lyon joined St Helens from NRL side Parramatta Eels on a two-year deal ahead of the 2005 season, despite the fact that four other Australian clubs had been looking to sign him.
Some imports take time to settle whilst others hit the ground running, Lyon however, was in a class of his own with regards to the latter.
In his first season, Lyon scored 22 tries and converted 42 goals to accrue 172 points. The impact the centre had in his first year was so great that Lyon became only the fourth overseas player to receive the Man of Steel Award. The accolades Lyon received did not end there and the influential centre was named as the Rugby League Players Association Players' Player of the Year and was given a place in the 2005 Super League Dream Team.
In his second season at Saints, Lyon picked up where he left off the previous year; in fact, one could say he went up another level.
His points tally of 328, for example, almost doubled that of 2005 and he played a vital role in Saints' first-placed finish and their first Grand Final victory since 2002. Capped eight times by Australia, the goal-kicking centre departed at the end of 2006 to join Manly, with whom he stayed until retirement in 2016.
Willie Talau
Another Saints player in the list, Willie Talau moved to the Lancashire club in 2003 from NRL side Canterbury Bulldogs. At Knowsley Road, Talau earned himself the reputation as one of the most formidable centres in Super League. Settling into the Saints side seamlessly, Talau won four Challenge Cups with the Saints and participated in the club's 2006 treble-winning season, scoring in both the 2006 Challenge Cup Final and the 2006 Super League Grand Final.
He also won the World Club Challenge with the Lancashire side in 2007 as Saints defeated Brisbane 18-14.
Throughout his six seasons with St Helens, Talau notched up just shy of 150 appearances, scoring 65 times. Then, ahead of the 2009 season, he moved to the then-named Salford City Reds. Talau appeared just 29 times in a Salford shirt - scoring four tries - and, because of his injury woes, retired at the end of the 2010 season at the age of 34.
Talau had always been impressive on the domestic stage, but he proved himself a formidable character on the international scene also. From 1999 to 2006, the 93kg powerhouse registered nine tries in 13 appearances for New Zealand. Then, In 2007, he switched his allegiance to the country of his birth - Samoa.
Although Talau was 32 in 2008, he was still good enough to represent Samoa at that year's World Cup where he played three times.
Paul Newlove
The third St Helens centre and one that was around in the early Super League days: Paul Newlove. The Pontefract-born player joined the club in 1995 from Bradford Northern, for an initial fee of £250,000 - money, which over the years, was paid back and then some. For example, Newlove would go on to score 134 tries in 208 appearances for the Lancashire club.
Newlove didn't have to wait long for his first taste of silverware at Saints when, in the 1996 Challenge Cup final, St Helens beat Bradford Bulls 40-32. Newlove would go on to win three Challenge Cups with St Helens.
He was also selected in the very first Super League Dream Team of the 1996 season after an impressive first campaign at the club - he ended the year as the competition's top try-scorer.
His first of four Super League titles at Knowsley Road came in the inaugural season of Super League (1996) when Saints topped the table. His second title followed in 1999 when Saints defeated Bradford Bulls 8-6 in a nailbiting encounter with Newlove again being named in the Dream Team for 1999. His next Old Trafford victory came in 2000 with a World Club Challenge success in 2001 against Brisbane. His last piece of silverware came in 2002 as Saints once more defeated Bradford in that year's Grand Final.
At the end of 2003, Newlove made his way to Castleford, but, plagued by injury, the once world-class centre played just five games before retiring in May 2004.
Newlove's budding domestic career had alerted the national scouts and he was called up to the Great Britain side at just 18 years of age in 1989. For the Lions, the athletic three-quarter scored nine tries in 20 appearances whilst he also notched up four tries in four appearances in an England jersey.
Shontayne Hape
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Shontayne Hape began his career in the NRL with New Zealand Warriors before moving to Bradford ahead of the 2003 season. In six seasons in West Yorkshire, Hape scored 85 tries in 134 appearances and was a vital figure in the Bulls' golden era during the mid-2000s.
The 6 ft 1, 102kg centre won two Grand Finals, one Challenge Cup and two World Club Challenges with Bradford and made a name for himself as one of the most talented and durable centres in Super League, playing inside Lesley "The Volcano" Vainikolo.
Hape and Vainikolo struck up a remarkable relationship and were one of the greatest centre/wing partnerships to have existed in the summer game.
Hape came to England at just 22 years of age, but his raw talent developed into a special one and, in just his second year at Odsal, Hape earned representative honours. From 2004 to 2007, the Auckland-born centre racked up 14 appearances in a New Zealand shirt, scoring six tries. After his partner in crime, Vainikolo, had left for Rugby Union in 2007, Hape followed suit in 2008 to join Bath. He would even earn caps for the England national side, qualifying through residency grounds - he had been in the UK for six years.
