‘Everyone is happy to have him back’: Dominant NSW Cup form helps Jackson Hastings win back starting spot

The Knights will turn to their third halves pairing in five weeks as they look to recapture the attacking potency that carried them to the second week of the finals last year.

Knights coach Adam O’Brien has praised Jackson Hastings for how he handled being dropped, with the halfback set to return on Friday night. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Two strong performances in the NSW Cup have prompted Adam O’Brien to recall Jackson Hastings for Friday’s game against the Dragons, with the veteran halfback’s kicking game to be crucial with up to 90mm of rain forecast in the Hunter.

Hastings has been brought back in place of Tyson Gamble, who drops back to reserve grade after last week’s loss in New Zealand.

There were concerns how the returning No.7 would handle his demotion, but he attacked training well and it showed on the paddock with Hastings setting up five tries against the Bears in the NSW Cup.

He’ll now partner Jack Cogger as the Knights look to settle on a halves combination that can take them forward after a slow start to the year.

Jackson Hastings is back in the NRL side after spending two weeks in reserve grade. Picture: NRL Photos

“I asked Jackson to go back and work on a couple of things in his game for the two games, but the two weeks of training (is where) he really applied himself to those things,” Knights coach Adam O’Brien said.

“I can only go on his attitude to training and then what his attitude was with the NSW Cup side, and he did an exceptional job. Everyone is happy to have him back.

“I want to have a look at him and Jack playing in a game together.

“We’ve had some training runs over the summer where they’ve been together, but I think with the conditions and the short turnaround, I feel as though it’s the right thing to do for this week.

“With the weather conditions, both of them have a really solid kicking game, so I think that’ll hold us in good stead.

“If you were to add weight with one to the other, Jackson will be the project manager, and ‘Coggs’ will assist him with it.”

This will be the third halves pairing in just five games, and O’Brien indicated on Thursday that he didn’t want to make weekly changes going forward.

That means the onus is on Gamble to go back and perform well to put pressure on the starting halves to force his way back into the team.

Tyson Gamble has been dropped for this week’s game against the Dragons. Picture: NRL Photos

“These guys want to play first grade, and that’s what I love about them,” O’Brien said.

“I don’t want them to do cartwheels out of my office when I tell them (they’ve been dropped).

“As long as I’m honest with the reasoning and give them a clear direction on what I want them to work on – which is what I did with Jackson – then (it’ll be fine).

“Tyson is a clubman, so he’ll get on with this weekend. He’s already trained well after the news yesterday, so I expect him to go out and do what Tyson does best, and that’s go out and compete.”

The Knights have lacked the attacking potency that took them to week two of the finals last year. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

The Knights have scored 20 points just once in the opening four rounds, with the tries not flowing as easily as they did last season when speedster Dom Young could conjure something out of nothing on the right wing.

O’Brien isn’t panicking at all, although don’t expect the points to flow this week with heavy rain hitting NSW.

“I actually think our first month of footy this year is better than last year,” he said.

“The easiest thing for people to do is to look at ladder positions and assume we’re not playing well. The intelligent person or rugby league person would see that there’s a lot of good things going on in our game.

“The results aren’t there, but they will come, and I feel that’s the same with our attack.”

Originally published as ‘Everyone is happy to have him back’: Dominant NSW Cup form helps Jackson Hastings win back starting spot