Jarryd Hayne asks Titans fans to be patient with his NRL comeback

AN EMOTIONAL Jarryd Hayne has urged fans to be patient, admitting his return to the NRL following 701 days away will not be a walk in the park.

AN EMOTIONAL Jarryd Hayne has urged fans to be patient, admitting his return to the NRL following 701 days away will not be a walk in the park.

“The Hayne Plane” has been cleared to take off in Gold Coast Titans colours for the first time against New Zealand at Cbus Super Stadium on Sunday.

Hayne trained with his new teammates for the first time on Thursday, deputising at five-eighth in place of the injured Tyrone Roberts (knee).

Hayne is likely to come off the bench against the Warriors, moving starting pivot Cameron Cullen into a dummy-half rotation with hooker Nathan Peats.

Hayne admits fans shouldn’t expect too much straight away.

Hayne was one of the best rugby league players in the world before he left the NRL in 2014 to try his hand in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers. At 28, he has the potential to reach those heights again, but it could take months for him to dominate the game.

“It’s obviously going to take time. There’s no doubt about that,” Hayne said. “I’m under no illusions it’s going to take time.

“I’m not just going to get out there and get back to the form when I was last playing.

“Mentally I feel good. I watched tape on both teams. Hopefully the muscle memory takes over and I can get back into it.”

Hayne’s greatest challenge could be overcoming the emotional and physical toll of the past few days.

He flew to the Gold Coast on Tuesday to meet with the Titans, expecting to return to Sydney that night.

Instead he has not been back since, living out of a hotel room and buying new clothes after signing a contract that allowed him to play this season.

“I probably haven’t been this emotional before in the lead-up to a game,” he said.

“The last couple of days have been up and down. It’s going to be tough physically and mentally.

“As a professional athlete I’ve got to get my head right. As each hour passes and each day goes by I feel better and better.

“I’m getting thrown in the deep end there. It’s going to be a challenge in itself. The next month will be a challenge physically and mentally.

“It does take a bit of time to get back into the swing of things but there’s no other way to do it than just get in there.”

Hayne only played 12 competitive games of NFL and rugby sevens in 18 months away from the NRL.

His gridiron career was a rollercoaster in a sport that is not known for aerobic endurance and Titans coach Neil Henry is reluctant to make his star recruit spend too much time on the field against the Warriors.

Titans forward Greg Bird, a former NSW Origin teammate of Hayne’s, said the ex-Eels dynamo had shown what he could bring to a team.

“Everyone’s seen what he can do for a football team,” he said. “We saw what he did in 2009 for Parramatta. He took them all the way through (to the grand final) from basically nothing halfway through the season.

“I’m looking forward to seeing that sort of form from Haynesy.

“He’s back playing the game he’s the best at. With sevens and NFL he might have been able to compete but this is where he’s made his name.

“Hopefully we can see the best of Jarryd Hayne over the next couple of months. If any other NRL player had two years out you wouldn’t be expecting them to come back and blow teams away in their first game.

“Haynsey isn’t everyone. He’s a bit special. You never know what he’ll come out with.”

Originally published as Jarryd Hayne asks Titans fans to be patient with his NRL comeback