Siliva Havili has revealed a pre-game text message from the man he replaced, Josh Hodgson, calmed his nerves before his Canberra Raiders debut on Sunday night.
Havili was one of the bright sparks for the Raiders in their 30-28 loss to the Gold Coast Titans in round one and has retained the starting hooker's role for Sunday's stoush with the Newcastle Knights.
The 25-year-old scored a try in the third minute and his crisp service from dummy-half helped the visitors jump out to a commanding 18-0 first-half lead.
"Credit to the boys that we completed seven from seven, it put me on the front foot and it put the attack on the front foot," Havili said.
The hooking role is set to be shared again this weekend, with Aidan Sezer named on the interchange bench.
Havili said in future he would like to take a bigger ownership of the No.9 jersey.
"That's the goal (to play more minutes) but it's up to Stick (Ricky Stuart) where he plays me, he's the coach but for myself I want to play more minutes and get to use to the pace of the NRL, and the more games I can get that match fitness,'' he said.
"I felt like I had more to give when I came off because of the attack we had from the completion rate we had more energy for the back end."
Despite playing alongside Blake Austin and Sam Williams for the first time, Havili said he felt right at home with the club's halves.
Match: Raiders v Knights
Round 2 -
home Team
Raiders
12th Position
away Team
Knights
5th Position
Venue: GIO Stadium, Canberra
"The clarity the halves gave me and with the pre-season game-plan we have been working on, my plan was just to be neat and tidy from dummy-half," he said.
"I didn't want to overplay my hand and give the halves a chance to do their thing, so I just wanted to be plain and simple."
Havili praised Sezer for his willingness to not shirk his defensive work in the middle third and backed him to again be tough to get around this weekend when the side hosts the Newcastle Knights.
Shannon Boyd also impressed in round one, topping the side for running metres at 149.
"I felt pretty good and a bit fitter, probably lost a bit of the weight I needed to lose, and I was happy enough with my game, probably need to build a few more minutes but other than that it wasn't too bad," he said.
Despite the side's slimmer pack, Boyd still backed the Raiders forwards to dominate the ruck against the Knights.
"They're not too bad but I think we're a bit bigger than them (Knights) so hopefully we should overpower them and get on top," Boyd said.
"Everybody is disappointed with how the game finished (last weekend), but everybody is keen to get back into next week and having the home crowd will be good for us."
