DANIEL Saifiti will look to match his career-best performance when the Knights take on Wests Tigers and he goes head-to-head with NSW and Kangaroos forward Aaron Woods.
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Saifiti had a breakout game in the round-11 match against the Tigers at Campbelltown last season, with statistics that proved he could match it with the best forwards in the game.
The then 20-year-old Entrance junior ran for 231 metres, had 20 hit-ups with two offloads and made 18 tackles in an outstanding 47 minutes.
Saifiti told the Herald after training on Monday that a thrashing by Cronulla and his appearance for Fiji in the weeks leading up to the Tigers game had inspired his strong showing.
“The week before we got beat 62-nil by the Sharks and I got a bit of a kick up the butt,” he said.
“I needed to play good.
“The week before that I played for Fiji and I played pretty well, so I got a bit of confidence out of that.”
Saifiti welcomed the challenge of opposing Woods, a veteran of nine Tests, 13 Origins and 137 NRL games, at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
“Any time I come up against a good prop, I definitely go into that game with the mindset that I need to do my best for the team,” he said.
“On the weekend I had two good front-rowers in Russell Packer and Paul Vaughan.
“When I do play guys like Woodsy, I definitely grow a bit and rise to the occasion.”
The Knights came agonisingly close to securing their third win of the year in Sunday's 32-28 loss to the Dragons, and Saifiti echoed coach Nathan Brown’s thoughts about it being the hardest loss to take this season.
“After the game everyone’s heads were down, as it should be,” Saifiti said.
“We should have put that game away in the second half. I can’t put my finger on why we did the same things as against the Panthers.
“This one was much tougher because we were 18 points in front, we had all the momentum and we lost, so it was devastating.”
The Knights wore their specially designed mining strip against the Dragons and will don the outfit again for Sunday’s home game in recognition of the Hunter community’s close association with the coal industry.
The Knights will be seeking a repeat of the corresponding game in 2016, in which they claimed their only win of the season, a narrow 18-16 victory at Hunter Stadium.
The match has been billed as a prelude for deciding the wooden spoon, and Saifiti said the extended support of the wider Hunter region was something the team did not take lightly.
“The Hunter community, it [coal mining] is one of the things we’re known for,” he said. “We’re such a tough, working town, and if we get the win for them this weekend, it will be a massive move forward as well.
“No one wants to get the wooden spoon.”
The Knights and Tigers are last on the ladder on eight points, four behind the Gold Coast Titans, but Newcastle have had two byes to the Tigers’ one.
