Knights Sione Mata’utia’s future is as backrower, says coach Nathan Brown

KNIGHTS coach Nathan Brown believes former Kangaroos winger Sione Mata’utia has the potential to make a spectacular transition into a backrower.

Nathan Brown has fast-tracked his plans for Sione Mata'utia.

NATHAN Brown has form when it comes to turning centres into international backrowers.

He did it at the Dragons when he was coach with the likes of Ben Creagh and Beau Scott before their careers took off.

Now the Newcastle coach believes former Kangaroos winger Sione Mata’utia has the potential to make an even more spectacular transition into the forward pack at the Knights.

Even before the 20-year-old centre starred on debut in the backrow on Sunday against Canberra, Brown told The Daily Telegraph he had the ability to make an instant impact in the new role.

BENNETT NO LONGER NRL’S TOP COACH

Brown has fast-tracked his plans for Mata'utia.

“It is where he is going to end up in his career,” Brown said. “I see him as a backrower 100 per cent. I’m probably just doing it 12 months earlier than maybe I planned to.

“It’s what I did with Benny Creagh, Beau Scott and even Shaun Timmins at the Dragons. And Sione is a way better player than they were when they were 20.”

Brown’s sense of optimism about the positional change proved right on the money. Mata’utia was one of the best players on the field in the Knights’ agonising golden point loss to the Raiders, suggesting his days as a centre may already be over.

“It was a new position and a shock to the system but I had a lot of fun,” Mata’utia said.

“I was more involved in more parts of the game. Definitely a massive learning curve for me and I’m looking forward to trying to learn the new position.

“It’s not that much different to centre. Just a lot more attack comes your way and a lot more running. I just tried to compete and do my best.”

Mata’utia admitted the Knights were in foreign territory after building up a 22-0 lead at almost a point a minute in the first half and believed inexperience cost them the much-needed win.

“We had a strong start and we thought we could close out the game,” he said. “But come the second half, we just played a bit conservative and Canberra took advantage of that.

“Blake Austin was a key player for them and we didn’t do a good enough job on him and they just had a big momentum swing and we couldn’t hold on.”

After just 80 minutes in the new role, Mata’utia says he has a far greater appreciation of the workload of the forwards.

“Three minutes in, I was already blowing but I was in for a big one and I always knew I could get through it,” he said.