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\n Keano Kini returned to form against the Eels.
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Following a modest few weeks that had some questioning his place in the team, Titans fullback Keano Kini roared into form against the Eels, putting in a player of the match effort.<\/p>\n
With three try assists, 265 metres, four line breaks and a near flawless performance at the back \u2013 Kini repaid the faith of coach Josh Hannay who had fended off questions about Kini\u2019s form and confidence to start the year.<\/p>\n
However, the softly-spoken New Zealand Kiwis fullback said for him, confidence has never been an issue.<\/p>\n
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Instead, he just worked hard on getting his fundamentals right and was more motivated to perform well for him team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty happy with it (performance against the Eels), especially the first half \u2026 I was a bit disappointed with my last couple of games, so it is good to get a decent standard of a game under my belt this year,\u201d Kini said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think it is the best I have played, but it is a good stepping stone for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery player has a high standard of themselves and I thought I wasn’t playing up to that standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think\u00a0the confidence thing has been blown out of proportion because I don’t lack confidence in myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am fairly inexperienced. I have only played 30-odd games so of course I am going to do extras. I will continue to do extras and work on my game.\u201d<\/p>\n
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All Tries – Eels v Titans – Round 6, 2026<\/p>\n
Sidelined for much of last season with a serious neck issue, Kini returned to play the last four games of the season before suiting up for the Kiwis in their Pacific Championships triumph.<\/p>\n
As a player still developing into his role in the spine, Kini said time was on his side, something Hannay had reiterated to him during his tough patch to start 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a whole year out last year and only played a couple of games at the back end,\u201d Kini said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am still finding my groove and finding my feet in the NRL again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am trying to give myself grace there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will see how I go the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Hannay) has given me a lot of confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just said that I am fairly inexperienced and I am going to have more up and down games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just knew I had to put a decent performance in for the boys. That is my main priority and concern – (not) letting down my team-mates … so long as I have their respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Smart work from Kini<\/p>\n
While celebrating one of their biggest wins as a club in their win over the Eels, the Titans know they have a new level of challenge ahead of them in New Zealand, with a sold out Go Media Stadium all wanting to cheer on a Warriors win.<\/p>\n
It will be a homecoming of sorts however for Kini, who will play his first NRL game in Aotearoa on Saturday, having previously only played Test matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am looking forward to going back to my homeland and playing in Auckland in front of my family and friends,\u201d Kini said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a cool experience to play in front of a sold-out crowd. It is my first time playing there so I am pretty keen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a few (former Titans) and I have a lot of good memories with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have played with Erin [Clark] in the Kiwis and my roommate Lofi [Alofiana Khan-Pereira] as well, so it will be good to catch up with them but I will try my best to get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a modest few weeks that had some questioning his place in the team, Titans fullback Keano Kini…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-607399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}