The New South Wales Waratahs’ latest rugby league recruit, centre/wingman Timana Tahu, has already electrified his new side’s attack. There’s plenty more to come this Super 14 season.

When Rugby Union recruitment officers hunt for a leaguey to boost their ranks, they traditionally don’t muck around with small fry. Which is why the New South Wales Waratahs eyed-off Parramatta Eels centre Timana Tahu before snapping him up. The Sydney-based Super 14 outfit thought he was just who they needed to bolster their backline.

Tahu, shy off the field and anything but when terrorising opposition defences on it, left rugby league having made 11 State of Origin appearances for the Blues. He’d also represented Australia in five Tests. On the club scene, he boasted an outstanding strike rate of 102 tries from 143 NRL games for the Newcastle Knights and Parramatta over nine exciting seasons.

Will the Waratahs’ investment in the Victorian-born league star pay off? He crossed in his first trial on Australia Day this year and set up two tries against the Hurricanes when things got serious … Looks like it already has. Here’s how Tahu prepares himself for weekly Super 14 war.

SUPER STRONG

“I have two 45-minute sessions in the gym fitted into my weekly schedule, which are mainly for my upper body. My weights regime – organised and monitored by our strength and conditioning coach Peter McDonald and his staff – is changed every three or four weeks. I’ve recently started a new program which involves more heavy lifting and less repetitions than I was doing before.

“I’ll work on my chest, back and shoulders one day, then later in the week I’ll do more body weight stuff, more reps. I don’t like doing chest weights that much; I really like to get into shoulders and back exercises. I do more lateral raises, shrugs, shoulder presses, bench pulls (which work the back), chin-ups and dips.

“With my lateral raises, which help my shoulders, I usually do four sets, plus a super set, which will go 25 reps, 15, 12 and 10, with no rest in between. I’ll do 25 reps with a 12.5kg dumbbell. As you go down in reps, your weights increase.

“I’ll do 12-15 reps of shrugs with 50-55kg dumbbells. When I get to my shoulder presses, I’m usually fatigued, so I’ll use a 35-40kg dumbbell for that exercise. My bench pulls weights usually get up to about 70kg.

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