The good form of Christian Tuipulotu has been one of the positives for St George Illawarra Dragons in recent weeks.
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The former Manly winger will play his third straight game for the Dragons on Sunday in the local derby against Cronulla at Shark Park.
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan, who coached Tuipulotu during his time at the Sea Eagles, gave the Tongan international his first Red V start against the New Zealand Warriors.
Tuipulotu more than held his own against one of the best wingers in the competition in Dallin Watene-Zelezniak as the Dragons upstaged the Warriors in Wollongong.
He was just as impressive on Anzac Day despite the fact the Dragons were well beaten by the Roosters.
His impressive form combined with the return from injury of Mikaele Ravalawa and unavailability of Mosese Suli has also resulted in Zac Lomax getting another start in his preferred position of centre.
The Parramatta-bound Lomax starred in his last outing in the centres, contributing 14 points as St George Illawarra beat the Warriors at WIN Stadium.
Speaking ahead of the Sharks game, Tuipulotu said his team-mates had made him feel right at home and he was looking forward to doing his bit to contribute to more on-field success for the Dragons.
He was also keen to repay the faith shown by Flanagan in recruiting the 23-year-old to the Dragons.
"He was a big influence in my decision, I loved working with him at Manly, he taught me a lot and I'm still learning a lot from him. He was a big reason for me coming to the Dragons," Tuipulotu said.
"It's been good [starting], the boys have welcomed me in and obviously I knew [Mosese] Suli from Manly so that made the transition easy for me. It's been really good so far.
"I feel much better, I feel like I'm slowly progressing. It's up to me now to perform consistently but I feel like I'm heading in the right direction under Flanagan."
Barring their last-start drubbing to the Roosters, the Dragons have also played some good football in the last month and head into the clash against the table-topping Sharks with a 4-4 win/loss record.
Tuipulotu said while there were no easy games it was good the Dragons had the chance to bounce back from the Roosters loss with a local derby against the high-flying Sharks.
"We've reviewed the Roosters loss and addressed what we needed to fix and now it is about moving forward and concentrating on trying to beat the Sharks," he said.
"We have to shift our focus to the next game, we can't afford to worry too much about last week because it will flow on to the next few weeks.
"We're stepping up for the new challenge of trying to beat the top of the table Sharks. We're ready for it.
"The boys are fired up after the loss last week so we're ready for the challenge.
"We have focused on sticking to our plan. There were obviously a lot of things that didn't go our way last week but during chaos we need to hold back and trust our systems.
"We have to run hard and tackle hard . If we do those two things hopefully we can come away with the win."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
