Taia enthusiasm to boost Saints

St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham has praised the impact of new signing Zeb Taia, following his debut at the weekend.

Taia, 32, arrived at the Totally Wicked Stadium recently in a deal that saw young English forward Joe Greenwood make an NRL switch to Gold Coast Titans.

The former Catalans Dragons back-rower made his bow in the red-vee in the defeat to Wakefield on Friday.

Cunningham said: “He jumped off the plane and had one training session with us, and he slipped about 50 times in training because the pitch was horrible.

“But he’s here, he’s prepared, he’s willing and he wants to be part of this system.

“He’s a natural footballer, he understands rugby, he understands what he should be doing and where he should be doing it.

“His enthusiasm is breeding around the place, and on the training field he has been second to none.

“If we can get a couple of senior players back and who can lead us a bit and understand how Zeb plays, we’ll be a really good side.

“At the minute we’ve got junior halves and we’re a little bit swap and change in the outside backs, but everyone is going to go through that period.

“We’re not going to make any complaints about it, we’re just going to keep going and keep fighting hard.

“We just need to bring a little bit more enthusiasm into the start of the game against Hull, and we’ll have a good crack at it.”

Saints have won just one of their three opening Super League games, and face a tricky trip to Hull on Friday.