A couple of days since making his NRL debut, Iszac Fa'asuamaleaui is still trying to find words to describe his whirlwind week.
Running out in his first ever NRL match at a roaring Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday, it's a moment the 21-year-old will never forget... especially having his big brother Tino right next to him for the history-making occasion.
The script could not have been written better for the Gympie Devils junior... earning a courageous win at home against the club that gave him and his brother their first taste of an NRL system, in front of 40 of his closest family and friends in the stands to watch the pair of siblings play together for the first time in Titans history.
Match: Titans v Storm
Round 3 -
home Team
Titans
5th Position
away Team
Storm
13th Position
Venue: Cbus Super Stadium, Gold Coast
And as luck would have it, the Fa'asuamaleaui fraternity were front and centre for Iszac's most treasured moment of his debut - his first hit up 'off the back fence' with the two brothers the Titans front row pairing for the start of the second half.
"Probably the best feeling out of the whole game was looking across to my brother [at the start of the second half] and him being on the other sideline, ready to take a run after me," Iszac told 9 News Gold Coast.
"That was probably the best feeling that ran and obviously it was great to have that first run to get all the nerves out."
Such was the day he was having, his maiden carry earned his Titans team a penalty... and the rest was history; finishing his first 25 minutes in the top grade with a solid 66 running metres and 13 tackles at a perfect 100 percent efficiency.
Back to do it all again this coming weekend when the Gold Coast travel north to face the Cowboys, Fa'asuamaleaui knows the importance of coming back down from cloud nine and resetting for what is expected to be another tough game - especially with their opponents coming off back-to-back losses, including a disappointing finish at home last start.
Match: Cowboys v Titans
Round 4 -
home Team
Cowboys
12th Position
away Team
Titans
10th Position
Venue: Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville
"I just need to do the same thing again, get the prep, right and do all that stuff to be ready," he said.
"It's another week and we've got another tough opponent again, so everyone's going to have to switch on and go up to Townsville and do a job.
"Everything just needs to stay the same and we keep it simple.
"Tino is always reminding all of us that it's all about the preparation and doing everything we can now before getting there, so when you get to the game, you can leave the field and have no regrets that you didn't do something during the week.
"Preparation is key and if we just get that right going into this weekend, we should hopefully get a good win."
Admitting his NRL call-up came as a shock so early in his career after only joining the Titans full-time squad at the start of the pre-season, his new goal is continue to learn and grow as a player, whether that be for the Titans or even should he return to the Hostplus Cup to continue his development.
"My main goal is to learn from each week," Fa'asuamaleaui said.
"I'll sit down with the coaches and do our review, but I guess I've learnt plenty on the go too... I've learnt heaps just from my first game and I want to take whatever I can each week into the next to continually improve.
"If I can [play regular NRL], that would be great, but I just want to take it one week at a time.
"Obviously it was unfortunate injuries (of Beau Fermor and Jaimin Jolliffe) that got me here, so I just want to take it one week at a time and see how I go from there."
