Wellington junior and Brisbane Broncos star centre Kotoni Staggs returned to his best on Friday night in his sides loss to the Sydney Roosters in round five of the NRL season.
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Playing at Suncorp Stadium, Staggs had easily his best game for the season running for 196 metres while also scoring a try, having 13 tackle busts and two line breaks for the home side.
After what was a quiet opening month, Staggs came back in a big way for Brisbane, running over the top of Roosters centre Paul Momirovski to barge his way over to score his first try of the season.
Following the game, Staggs told media he knew it would take a little while for him to find his groove back in the NRL after an injuries have impacted his past few seasons.
"My first couple of games, I wasn't where my standard was and I've just come off an ACL and people out in the real world don't realise how long it really does take to recover," he said.
"That's where my standard was tonight and that's where I've got to be every game.
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"I just really focused back to when I was five years-old and what got me to where I am and that five-year-old from Wellington doing his thing and having fun and enjoying the game of footy.''
While Brisbane did not get the win, Staggs knows the Broncos' effort was back where it needed to be after lackluster performances against both the North Queensland Cowboys and New Zealand Warriors in recent weeks.
"It's pretty tough to lose. All that we focussed on in the week was to be better than our last game and win, lose or draw I think we can get a lot of confidence out if that to go against Penrith next week,'' he said.
"Roosters are a quality team and they are up there as well. Penrith are the premiers and it's in Penrith too so it's going to be pretty tough down there."
Broncos coach Kevin Walters also praised the performance of Staggs and knows the centre is back near his best after what was a tough loss.
"I'm really happy for Kotoni because he's been under a bit of pressure with all that stuff and it's good for him to show people why we think he's a special player and tonight he was a key player for us on many occasions,'' he told media after the game.
Brisbane's next match will come against the defending premier Penrith Panthers on Friday night at BlueBet Stadium.
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