LONG after the scoreline had blown out beyond salvation, Zeb Taia was still immersed in his work.
As the Newcastle Knights were reduced to the role of cannon fodder at Canberra Stadium last Sunday, Taia was sticking to his guns in the trenches, refusing to wave the white flag.
At full-time, on the wrong end of a 52-18 shellacking from the Raiders, Knights coach Rick Stone was struggling to find any positives.
But Zaia's contribution was one source of solace.
When the going got toughest, the Kiwi Test forward kept going.
Stone said his tackle-shy troops "weren't willing to put our body in front of the bloke who was carrying the footy", but Taia was exempt from any such criticism.
In a bruising 80-minute effort, he made 47 tackles, the most by any Newcastle player in any game this season.
For good measure, he made 92 attacking metres from 10 hit-ups - more than any of his fellow forwards.
As disappointed as he was with the result, Taia was entitled to reflect on a job well done.
"I think there was a positive for Zeb out of that," Stone said.
"I had a good chat to him and he seemed to think that, even though the game was not the best club-wise, personally for him, he felt like he got through the game strongly.
"He played 80 minutes and his fitness was getting back. He was getting some confidence back, even though he didn't touch the ball as often as he would have liked.
"He racked up nearly 50 tackles, I think, and showed that particularly his cardio-vascular fitness is back to somewhere near its best."
Taia admitted he had endured a fluctuating season in which his form and fitness have been hindered by an array of injuries.
He spent most of the pre-season recovering from a shoulder reconstruction, then suffered broken ribs in the round-four loss to South Sydney.
A few weeks later, he tore knee ligaments in his Test debut for the Kiwis and was sidelined for another two games.
"I wouldn't say I'm getting back to my best form, but I'm finding my feet again," Taia said.
"It's been an up-and-down year.
"First I had my shoulder injury, then my ribs, then obviously my knee.
"There's been some setbacks during the year, but we're getting into the business part of the year and I reckon I'm starting to find a little bit of form and hopefully I'll get better and better as the weeks go on."
A Parramatta junior, Taia was signed by former Knights coach Brian Smith midway through the 2007 season.
Having played in six NRL games for the Eels, he was languishing in their reserve-grade side.
But since joining the Knights, Taia has established himself as an indispensable member of Newcastle's pack, appearing in 66 top-grade games for his adopted club and collecting the Excalibur Club Player of the Year award in 2008.
A versatile back-rower capable of breaking the line out wide or rolling up his sleeves and defending in tight, Taia had a philosophical attitude to his hard yards last weekend.
"Obviously making 50 tackles in a game is not my go, but when there is work that needs to be done, it has to be done," he said.
Taia has few fond memories of Canberra, where last season he dislocated his shoulder in Newcastle's 30-14 defeat.
"Back to my Parra days, we used to get pumped down there," he said.
"Then obviously at Newcastle we don't have a good track record there either.
"Next time we get to play them down there, we've just got to turn up on the day."
Taia insisted the demoralising result had not crushed the self belief in the Newcastle camp.
The Knights will need at least five wins from their remaining seven games to reach the play-offs, and skipper Kurt Gidley has reminded them that a positive attitude will be crucial if they are to bounce back against struggling North Queensland in Townsville on Saturday night.
"Gids told us at the start of the session today, 'Don't walk around with your heads down. We've got to walk around with our heads held high,' " Taia said. "That's obviously one bad loss but we can't just dwell on that.
"We've got to get on with it and give it to the Cowboys this week."
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