80-minute man
NEWCASTLE Knights fans had a good, long look at Chris Houston on his debut for the club last weekend and they can expect to see plenty more of him as season 2008 unfolds.
The former St George Illawarra forward played the full 80 minutes in Newcastle's 30-14 win over Canberra, and his staying power was one of the main reasons Knights coach Brian Smith targeted him midway through last season.
At the time, Houston had appeared in only a handful of NRL games, but Smith identified him as a player with "a lot of minutes in him".
"He's got quite a motor on him, Chris," Smith said.
Since signing a three-season contract, circumstances have conspired to make Houston's stamina even more valuable for the Knights.
First came the off-season revelation that NRL officials were reducing the number of interchanges this season from 12 to 10, which meant that players would face greater endurance demands than they have in recent years.
Then just a few minutes into last week's clash with the Raiders, Newcastle lost Test forward Steve Simpson to a knee injury that is likely to sideline him for up to eight weeks.
Simpson is one of the game's marathon men, capable of regularly playing 80 minutes and churning through a mountain of work in attack and defence.
In his absence, Houston shapes as Smith's engine-room toiler the perfect foil for explosive impact players like Danny Wicks, Richard Fa'aoso and Cory Paterson.
The towering 23-year-old produced 24 tackles and 15 hit-ups last week but felt he had plenty of room for improvement.
"On a personal note, it was good to get through 80 minutes, but I think I only played about 50 the other 30 I was just running around out there filling in the holes," he said with a laugh.
Going the distance, however, was certainly not a new experience for the former Narooma junior.
In his 16 games for the Dragons last year, he estimates he played 80 minutes "in about 75 per cent of them" and averaged almost 65 minutes a game during the course of the season.
"Being able to play 80 minutes is something I've had in my game for a while, and it's worked out in my favour with the new interchange rules," he said.
"Other guys have got different parts of their games to what I have, so I suppose they get used in shorter bursts.
"But as soon as you're sitting on the bench, you want to get back on the field.
"So the longer I can be out there, the better I feel, and hopefully I'm doing better for the team."
Houston moved to Newcastle in September and has already forged a tight bond with his new clubmates.
"It doesn't take long to get to know people in a new side when you're spending five and six days a week training with them," he said.
"We've formed pretty close relationships in a short space of time, which has been good."
Part of that is possibly because there are four other former Dragons in Newcastle's line-up this season, including heavyweight prop Wicks, with whom Houston is sharing a house in New Lambton Heights.
Houston revealed Wicks was generally a good flatmate but had been pushing the friendship since he scored a try against the Raiders last weekend a feat Houston is yet to manage at NRL level.
"He's been non-stop," Houston laughed. "He's been into me all week. I haven't heard the end of it."
Of his own tryscoring jinx, he admitted it was "killing me at the moment".
"I'm keen, I definitely want to get over the line," he said.
"I'll be looking for one on Saturday night. I always go looking for them. Hopefully 'Mullo' [Jarrod Mullen] can put me over for one nice and early on Saturday night."
Having graduated recently from university with a Bachelor of Education degree in primary school teaching, Houston plans to continue his studies, possibly later this year.
"I graduated in December, but I've put my uni on the backburner a little bit," he said.
"It was pretty tough getting through a uni course and fitting it in with training full-time.
"I've just decided to have at least the first semester off I might do something next semester, either some more uni or a TAFE course.
"But at the moment it's on hold.
"The biggest problem is finding what I want to study.
"If I knew, I probably would have started straight away.
"But I need to figure out what I want to do next before I commit to anything."
Although his free time is at a premium, the former surf-lifesaving nipper still tries to get in for a surf a couple of times a week.
Yesterday he borrowed Cory Paterson's malibu for a therapeutic paddle.
On Saturday night, the pair will be trying to get the better of the Sea Eagles at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
