ZEB Taia’s arrival may be just the tonic Saints need after the disappointing defeat by Leigh was compounded by injuries to Luke Douglas and Jonny Lomax.

The 32-year-old former Gold Coast Titan flew into Manchester on Tuesday and had a look around the training facilities later that day.

In return, former Saint Joe Greenwood has flown in the opposite direction and has already joined Titans at training.

Taia, who has signed a three-year deal at the club, has been named in the 19-man squad for Friday night’s home game against Wakefield Trinity, although it is not certain whether he will be thrown in at the deep end.

Speaking on Monday, before Taia’s arrival in the country, Saints boss Keiron Cunningham sounded cautious.

Cunningham said: “We flew Adam Quinlan in and he landed on Thursday and played on a Friday because we didn’t have a full back.

“We have plenty of forwards and as much as I want to see Zeb in a Saints shirt I don’t want to break him before he has got running.”

Having named him in the 19, it seems inconceivable that Taia will not feature in what will be a tougher game than usual for Saints.

Having experienced three years of Super League with Catalans, Taia knows what to expect.

If he plays it may give Saints the lift they need after their good work from round one against Leedswas wasted by a poor start at newly-promoted Leigh.

Cunningham said issues identified in that loss have been addressed Having reviewed the Leigh game with the players he said: “The way we started was disappointing.

“We knew Leigh would start like that, although we knew we would get chances and we did, that start let us down.

“Mark Percival, Luke Douglas and Ryan Morgan all score tries that are not given and if there was a video ref we’d have been 18-0 up.

“But you have to deal with that and the response to that adversity was not good.

“When Big Al came on he got us going in the right direction and Robes was immense and pulled us back.”

He was particularly disappointed with the soft tries Leigh engineered through opening Saints’ middle.

Cunningham added: “We have worked hard on defence and I don’t mind if they score tries on the outside.

“It is when they come through you that it is a bit of a sign of weakness and we got exposed a bit for a bit of mental weakness.

“Our starting front was not great, but that was the same one that was outstanding the week before against Leeds.

“It tells you it is a mindset thing.

“It is not good enough for this club and we definitely addressed it this week. We just need a big attitude adjustment for the start this week.”

Although James Roby altered the complexion of the game when he came on, the damage was already done.

But Cunningham defended his tactic of starting with Tommy Lee, which worked against Leeds but was highlighted against Leigh.

“Tommy has been brought in to save James Roby.

“We’d love to play Robes for 80 minutes but if he breaks then we are in trouble.

“Tommy will have his critics, but he was not on his own and there were quite a few characters around him who were not quite at the races on Friday.

“When you are coaching you can’t just be reactive,” Cunningham said.