Watkins eager for Titans to impress
TITANS centre Kallum Watkins insists he has no regrets about his move to the NRL battlers, adamant the club has the personnel to turn it all around in coming seasons.
A late-season arrival from Leeds Rhinos in 2019, the 22Englishman is yet to taste victory on the Gold Coast after losing all six games last campaign and the Titans’ first two outings of 2020 before the coronavirus suspended action.
Having fully recovered from a 2018 knee reconstruction, Watkins held his own in the 24-6 season-opening loss to Canberra and then the 46-6 flogging from Parramatta at Robina a week later.
Given his horror start to life on the Glitter Strip, the 29year-old could be forgiven for thinking he’d made the wrong career move but said he had never doubted his decision.
“I knew before coming here where the Titans were at but I knew that they’ve got good people here and the players that they’ve got are top-quality players,” said Watkins before the season was suspended.
“If you get things right and you get things together, the performances will show on the field and I think that’s important. The players that we’ve got here, potentially we can do something special, which is something I looked at before I came,” he said.
“The position that they were in (when I arrived), it was pretty similar to Leeds at that time as well. That’s another challenge in itself, to help a team get to be where they want to be and be successful.
“Coming here was a good idea, I don’t regret it at all. I’ve never had doubts while I’ve been here, even though the season didn’t go well (in 2019).
“But pretty much the whole year didn’t go well (for me) so I took it on the chin and thought ‘next season’s going to be better’. Once you get a few games in you’re going to be in the best shape you can be.”
Based at Burleigh with wife Sophie and their three sons, the Test player said he was loving the Gold Coast lifestyle after 13 seasons with Leeds.
“It’s a different scene to back home in Manchester and Leeds. It’s been good, it’s been a really enjoyable experience for everybody,” he said.
“It took (the family) a little while to settle in (but) it’s been pretty easy for me because you’re here with 30 guys as soon as you turn up to work. Whereas my missus and the kids, they’re into the unknown and they’ve got to meet new people and make new friends.
“That was always going to be the tough part of it and you get certain moments where they’ll miss family back home … but it’s something we wanted to experience. It’s a beautiful place to live.”