By Jon Geddes

POWERFUL Randwick No.8 Ben Houston is the best thing to come out of the Wests Tigers NRL club this season.

The Galloping Greens’ captain spent four months training fulltime with the embattled outfit over the pre-season as he looked at making a switch of codes.

While an NRL career did not come to fruition, Randwick have reaped the rewards from Houston’s brave venture to the other side as he returned to Coogee Oval a far stronger player, both physically and mentally.

Houston’s performances since his safari to Tiger Town have been pivotal in Randwick’s outstanding season, culminating in this Saturday’s grand final showdown with Norths at Leichhardt Oval – which could have been Houston’s home ground this year.

‘HARDEST FOUR MONTHS OF MY LIFE’      

WHILE the Tigers seem to move from one drama to the next, Houston has nothing but good things to say about the club.

“I was fortunate to do that, it was definitely one of the best things I have ever done,” Houston told Rugby News.

“It was the hardest four months of my life,” he said. “It was two hours on the field every single day, high intensity and not many breaks  – it was very,  very tough.

“It’s the physicality and just doing the simple things right – work in contact, technique in tackles.

“League is not necessarily my sport, but I loved every single minute of it. It really changed my footy.

“From that, I’ve always got that little bit of extra fitness, that bit of extra juice, because I did go to a hard place and mentally you have to try and get out of there.         

 “I’m very grateful to all the boys at the Tigers, I wish them every bit of luck because they deserve it.”

League veterans like Dave Klemmer and Api Koroisau were two players in particular who helped the newcomer.

THE TIGER TWIST                  

HOUSTON had a baptism of fire in his first trial game in a loss against the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

“It was 48-0 with no conversions, that sums up my league career,” he said with a chuckle.

“I’m really happy to come back here (to Randwick) and get to the grand final.”

Wicks’ coach Stephen Hoiles said Houston had definitely benefited from his time with Wests Tigers.

“It was his first time he has been a fulltime athlete – he’s bigger, he’s stronger and he has more in him from that point of view,” Hoiles said.

And the former Wallaby forward believes 24-year-old Houston is ready to go to the next level.

In an interesting twist Hoiles, a diehard Tigers fan, at one stage was considering having a crack with the club himself.

“I had a few chats, it was probably more me asking if they would let me in and them saying ‘no’ I think,” he laughed.          

GOOD BUILD-UP 

RANDWICK qualified for the premiership decider following their 38-20 final win over Eastwood at North Sydney Oval on Saturday, which Houston said gave the team a massive confidence boost.

The Greens gained ascendancy after the break, aided by three yellow cards to Eastwood forwards which saw them reduced to 12 men.    

“We knew we just had to stay in it in the first half,” Houston said. “We chose to run against the wind because we knew we would come home with a wet sail.

“With a team like that, you‘ve just got to stay there physically and eventually they will break – that was our game plan all along which was good.

“It’s a massive confidence boost, I think confidence is so important at this time of year.”

And Houston said this week his team now needs to sharpen up a few things for the grand final.

“I don’t necessarily think we need to change much, just polishing little features that will get us the win,” he said.

Hoiles said the game provided a good build-up to the premiership decider.

“We learnt a few lessons early, we didn’t have a good first half, our lineout didn’t function, we were under pressure from maul and scrum – and we had to solve those problems,” he said.

“They were a bit down on themselves at halftime but I wasn’t worried.”

He said his side forced those Eastwood yellow cards and then took advantage of that.|