Bird will move from lock to five-eighth to replace the injured Darren Lockyer, who is widely regarded as the world’s best in the number six jersey.

It is not the first time the Cronulla Sharks hard-man has been in the halves for the green and gold, leading Australia to a 58-0 thrashing of the Kiwis in October last year.

Bird, 24, has played all levels of representative rugby league and said he was not overwhelmed by the task ahead.

“I am sort of comfy there now in that position, it’s not the first time I have played there,” he said.

“And I played pretty well there against them last time.”

Bird was also confident he had the support of his team in replacing the Brisbane Broncos stalwart.

“I would like to think I had their support. No one has said they aren’t happy with me there and we had a good game last time,” he said.

Speculation leading up to Friday’s trans-Tasman clash has pre-empted a repeat of last year’s drubbing of the Kiwis.

Bird was confident the standard of his back line would be too good on Friday, but stressed that the Kiwis would be presenting a new team with new motives.

“You can’t draw too much comparison between this team and the team that played last year,” he said.

“This time they have more agile players in the back line and a lot more smaller guys, there’s really no similarities between the two teams.

“And they will be out to prove something this time, they were embarrassed last year.”

Bird cited the inclusion of Sharks second rower Paul Gallen in the run-on side as another comforting factor for him ahead of Friday’s test.

The two have been key front runners in the Sharks forward pack and will work on their familiar combinations.

“It helps having Paul in the team. He hits a really good hole and we are used to playing together,” Bird said.

He said he would like to make the permanent career change to five-eighth for Cronulla, but coach Ricky Stuart was not in a position to allow it.

“I would like to play six as much as I can but its just not where Ricky wants me at the moment. With injuries and suspensions in the forward pack, it’s difficult for him to put me there,” he said.

“It really depends how we buy players in the future as to whether I could play there.”

Bird’s career has been growing in leaps and bounds since he was selected in the NSW Country Team in 2007, but he still keeps time spare in his diary to revisit his old stomping grounds.

“Yeah I get up there (Maitland) whenever I can,” he said. “I still have a lot of mates up there from the Pumpkin Pickers that I like to have a beer with.”