Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien believes prop Jacob Saifiti was inspired by his twin brother’s success as he looks to rebuild his NRL career in 2020.

After breaking his leg and serving a suspension for an off-field altercation at a Newcastle pub last season, the 23-year-old played just seven NRL games in 2019.

His difficult season was at complete odds with that of his twin brother Daniel, who had the best season of his NRL career and was selected to to play State of Origin for NSW for the first time.

On Saturday, Jacob ran for 108 metres from the bench in the Knights’ 20-0 win over the Warriors, prompting O’Brien to heap praise on the off-contract prop.

“It’s probably not what I thought of him today, it’s what I’ve thought of him for the last three months since I got here. He’s been excellent,” O’Brien said.

“He had obviously a different start to his season last year, there was a lot of variables, he had some injuries and some off-field stuff and then to witness his twin brother go through and go on to play Origin, Jacob hasn’t dropped his bundle.

“It’s probably inspired him if anything to come back in the condition that he did in the pre-season and then give us the pre-season that he did.

“I thought his trial form, he was probably our best forward.

“He put himself in this 17, he was an easy guy to select. [On Saturday] he played large minutes for us. They’re even harder to tell apart now.”

It’s huge praise for the powerful prop who played just 15 NRL games across the past two seasons under former coach Nathan Brown.

He comes off contract at the end of the season, while twin Daniel is signed until the end of 2022.