Newcastle second-rower Zeb Taia has put his hand up to take on extra responsibility in the absence of injured NRL captain Kurt Gidley, and has vowed to bring the best out of former representative centre Timana Tahu.
Before a season-ending shoulder injury finished Gidley’s night prematurely on Monday, the Knights skipper, Taia and Tahu showed the first signs of a lethal left-side combination in the 34-14 win over Penrith.
However, with Gidley gone, Taia declared it was his responsibility to lead the left-side defence and ensure the dangerous Tahu gets as much ball in his hands as possible.
Taia and Tahu are long-term friends from their days together at former club Parramatta and, against the Panthers, they both clicked for their best games of the season.
One-time New Zealand forward Taia is striving to get back to the international level, but first, he wants to establish himself as a Knights’ leader.
“When Kurt’s not there, I’ve got to pick up my act and take a bit of leadership on that left side. He’s got that awesome talk and it’s something I probably need to work on the next couple of games,” Taia told AAP.
“It was good to get that combination (with Tahu) going – we need more of it.
“We’ve still got a lot of things to work on, me and him, and talk is one of them. But when we get confident and play off each other, that’s when our best footy comes out.
“I just want to help Timana out in that department because he needs more ball and I reckon he can be a danger to other teams when he gets it early in his hands.”
Coach Wayne Bennett said Taia is finally regaining confidence, after a serious neck injury sidelined the skilful and hard-working back-rower for most of last season.
Bennett is also determined to bring the best out in Tahu.
“He’s a very talented player. We’ve just got to get that talent out each week and show us what he can really do,” Bennett said.
Taia believes the supercoach can get him back into the reckoning for the Kiwis and says the only problem at the Knights at the moment under Bennett is occasionally slipping back into bad habits.
“If we go out there and stick to the game plan that Wayne wants us to do … we’re a good side, but we go into the old Knights,” he said.
“He touched on that in the after-match speech on Monday … just silly errors always creep into our game and it’s not going to win you games when it comes to the finals run.
“Wayne puts a lot of confidence in me. He’s been awesome for me this year.”