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Two games into his career as an NRL winger, Taine Tuaupiki credits his ‘little shadow’ as a key to helping him adjust to the challenges of the new position.
It has understandably been something of a steep learning curve for the 25-year-old whose first 11 games for the One New Zealand Warriors saw him starting at fullback 10 times and on the interchange once.
Like the rest of his teammates he rebounded from the Las Vegas setback with an impressive performance in last Friday night’s superb 36-16 win over Manly Warringah at Go Media Stadium, a night when his twinkling feet and speed delivered a wonderful first half try, almost 100 metres gained, a line break, an off load and an eye-catching game-high nine tackle breaks.
He lines up for the third time against the Sydney Roosters tomorrow night and it's the man whose position he has taken – injured try-scoring specialist Dallin Watene-Zelezniak – who has been critical in fast-tracking him in the arts of the winger’s role.
“If we mic’d Dal up during training he’s actually just my little shadow,” said Tuaupiki.
“He just follows me around. He does say: ‘Is it getting a bit too annoying me being behind you?’ because he has to get his movements going (while he recovers from his wrist injury). I told him it’s helping me out heaps, I can never have too much information. Like the position’s pretty foreign to me.
Match: Warriors v Roosters
Round 3 -
home Team
Warriors
6th Position
away Team
Roosters
13th Position
Venue: Go Media Stadium, Auckland
“(The best advice he has given) is to just be me. I think in the Raiders game I tried to be someone else, tried to be like how Dal played, like Kos (Ed Kosi) and the other wingers.
“Heading into last week Webby (head coach Andrew Webster) just said be you and Dal said bring your best. I’m not really that tough carry, ad line, straight at you going to bump you off kind of guy. I’m more of a step around, try to find tired forwards and get around them … a winger you don’t really see in the competition, but I just want to add my own flavour.
“I’m finding it fun, it’s different. I don’t want to say it’s not as hard as fullback because it has its different difficulties.
“Definitely less pressure on the wing than when you’re playing fullback where you’re involved (all the time), you’ve got to tell people what to do and be the voice in the team.
"When you’re on the wing you’re just a solider and have to do what you’re told. Although I’m enjoying it I’ve always told Webby I just want to be in the 17, whether that’s on the bench, wing, halves I’m just happy to be there.”
It was Watene-Zelezniak’s misfortune (when he broke his wrist early in the trial against the Sharks) that opened the way for Tuaupiki to play wing – although he was initially oblivious to the possibility when it unfolded that evening at Sharks Stadium last month.
“To be honest, I think if I wasn’t on the bench and Dal got injured I probably wouldn’t be playing right now. Some things just aligning and I got my opportunity,” he said.
“It was a bit funny. When Dal went down I was there bossing some of the young boys. We had a couple of wingers on the bench and I told them: ‘Boys, go for a run, get up’. It wasn’t until Dal had pretty much walked off the field and I was still kicking back in the seat when Dingo (team manager Dan Floyd) sprayed me: ‘Get on the field’.
“It wasn’t until about 15 or 20 minutes in that I was taking it seriously. I was probably mucking around for the first 15 or 20 minutes because I didn’t expect it. After the lungs got blowing that’s probably when I knuckled down a bit.”
In that trial he scored try and made 166 metres from 18 runs before snaring two tries against Melbourne a week later when he made 151 metres from 13 runs, so earning him a starting winger's berth against the Raiders in Las Vegas.
