Wing king Sinoti determined to turn Falcons fortunes
SINOTI SINOTI is “sick” of Newcastle’s also-ran status and is focused on propelling them up the league table.
The Samoan wing is fully fit and raring to go after last season when he was plagued by injury and overlooked for the World Cup.
The 30-year-old turned down the chance of a fiveweek holiday to train during the summer in a bid to recapture the spark that saw him included in the 2014/15 Premiership Dream Team.
On the evidence of his performance in the 50-point pre-season drubbing of Nottingham, and the steely determination in his eyes, defences beware.
Sinoti told TRP:“Since I have been here, we have struggled and we need to turn that around. It doesn’t matter how we win, we just need to win.
“Coming second-to-last is not ideal and you get sick of it, you get sick of analysing the same things on video week in week out.
“If you are winning you are being spoken about and bringing in the crowds, it makes the marketing people’s job a lot easier. But if you are losing no-one knows about you.
“I want to get Newcastle out there and for people to know about us on the same scale as the top teams. Look what winning the Premiership in 1998 did for the city … for us to bring that kind of feel back is a big deal. It is up to us as players to get those wins.”
As well as growing weary of Newcastle’s perennial battle against the drop, Sinoti hopes his injury problems can be consigned to history too.
“I came into last season with a fracture on the right leg, and then I did the inside of my knee which took me out for the rest of the season.
“Touch wood my bad luck is out of the way. I am hoping for an injury-free season. When you are injured for so long, you tend to reflect on what is important life-wise, and you do a lot of soulsearching.
“For me, it was important to reconcile myself with the fact that I wasn’t going to play; if you think about it too much you just go crazy and waste a lot of stress.
“You can take things for granted sometimes so it is good now I am back and fully fit and hopefully I can play some good footy.
“No-one likes to be out of action and you go through ups and downs but once you finally get right again, you get quite excited.
“We’ve had a good preseason. A lot of the young boys have matured since I first got here, and with the new signings, we’re looking to improve on last season’s league position of 11th.”