While most of the NSW Blues players have faltered since returning to club football, Eels coach Brad Arthur believes the decision to rest Jarryd Hayne during the Origin period is paying dividends.
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The Eels struggled without their No.1 in the middle of the season. The Parramatta medical staff advised Arthur to rest his fullback given the enormity of the physical toll of Origin.
While Arthur admits he wasn't pleased with the advice of his coaching staff at the time, he acknowledges his side are now reaping the rewards of those tough decisions made earlier in the season.
"I reckon it's helped," Arthur said before Friday night's showdown against arch enemy Canterbury
"I was a little bit sceptical about it but I've got good staff around me and our high performance staff, that was their suggestion and they're paid to do a job. I've got to put trust in them and so far, it's paid off for him. But there's still four games to go. And he knows that while our forwards need to be good for him to play off the back of, he needs to inject himself when the opportunity's there.
"I wasn't happy about [resting him]. When you lose your star player, no one's going to be happy about it. There's no point having them here if I don't trust our staff."
Hayne is the form player of the competition and some are arguing that he is a better player now than when he led the Eels to the grand final in 2009.
While there are no shortage of accolades for the Eels fullback, Arthur deflected attention away from his superstar, recognising the importance of the rest of the team in ensuring Hayne is at his best.
"Look, Jarryd's a good player, a very good player and he's playing at the best of his ability at the moment, but he's not allowed to do that unless the rest of the team is doing their job and I think our forwards are really giving him something to play off the back off and then our two halves are taking a bit of pressure off him," Arthur said.
"Jarryd's got a bit more time now to inject himself when he feels like it or when he sees the need instead of trying to do everything all the time. Our halves are taking a lot of pressure off him, and our forwards have allowed our halves to do that. It's definitely a team effort, and he's capitalising on a lot of opportunities that the whole team's creating."
Given both the Eels and Bulldogs are locked on 26 points, Friday night's clash at ANZ Stadium could determine which team sneaks into the top eight.
The Bulldogs will be without Josh Reynolds and are stinging coming off four straight losses, but still possess one of the biggest and most skilful forward packs in the competition.
The young Eels forwards got over the top of them the last time the two teams met, and Arthur knows how vital it is for that to be repeated on Friday night.
"We've had some great opportunities and tests this year against forward packs and even though we didn't beat Souths, I thought our forwards aimed up against Souths, we aimed up against Penrith, strong pack, and last we played the Dogs, I think our forwards were the difference that day," he said.
"So we've gained a bit of confidence but it's really important that we look to get better and they improve this week. It is going to be a good test because their forward pack has come under a bit of fire the last couple of weeks and so they'll be looking to instil some pride."
