Wayne Bennett says Queensland’s record-breaking State of Origin win has rejuvenated Darius Boyd and allowed his journeyman fullback to return to his best.

Boyd has been one of the mainstays of Bennett’s more recent coaching career, moving with the supercoach from Brisbane to St George Illawarra and then onto Newcastle for the 2012 season.

Boyd’s form for the Knights has been heavily criticised for much of the season given his status as one of the club’s best-paid players.

His struggles came to a head very publicly as Bennett consoled a clearly distraught Boyd during halftime in the round nine loss to the Roosters, a scene caught on Channel Nine’s dressing room cameras.

But Bennett, whose Knights face a must-win match against Manly at Hunter Stadium on Saturday night, believes Boyd has returned to the kind of form that has made him one of the best fullbacks in the game.

“Boyd has been playing well the past couple of months now so … he has moved on from where he was,” Bennett said on Friday.

“He is back being Darius and back to the player we all know he is.”

However Bennett refused to blame Boyd’s absence during the Origin period for the Knights’ struggles.

“Origin didn’t affect us too much, it affected my coaching career more to be honest,” Bennett joked.

“We only had two players, one at the end there.”

The Knights face a Manly side likely to be without both Brett and Glenn Stewart but ominously building momentum as they chase back-to-back titles.

The Sea Eagles raced out to a 40-0 lead over Parramatta last week before easing back to win 40-24, while Newcastle were on the end of a 34-14 hammering at the hands of South Sydney.

But Bennett said he was confident Manly would not run all over Newcastle at home.

“We had a bad day (against Souths) but we did keep at it when other teams might have thrown it away completely,” Bennett said.

“There is a lot of spirit in these blokes.”