South Sydney forward Jason Clark said all that was expected from rookie prop Nathan Brown during Saturday's match against the Gold Coast was that he added "plenty of energy" when he's thrown into the action.
Brown, who joined Souths from the Wests Tigers in March, will be on the bench at Cbus Super Stadium and Clark said it would reflect poorly on the senior players if the 22-year-old, or any member of the squad's younger brigade, felt as though they were weighed down by a sense of pressure.
"I hope none," Clark said of the possible pressure on Brown. "We put the pressure on all of us as a team, our leaders will try and lead us around and all we want from the young blokes who come into the team is that they bring their energy and just play. You don't want those kids to have stress on them.
"I was in Nathan's position, coming on off the bench for a while and not playing a lot of time. However, when I came on I brought as much energy as I could. When you're out there you want to let the players on the field know you're out there and you bring a whole new level of energy for the team with you."
Brown, who remembered his knees shaking while the national anthem played before he made his debut for the Wests Tigers in the 2013 Heritage Round match against St George Illawarra, said he'd enjoyed a smooth initiation at Redfern.
"None at all," he said of feeling stressed. "It's a massive team to join; they won the competition and world championship match in England but that's all in the past. As great as that all was it means nothing right now and we're focusing on a Gold Coast team that always play well in front of their home crowd."
Brown said he intended to channel the passion of Sam Burgess, the player he would've loved most to have played alongside, whenever he runs the ball.
"When Sam was playing at Souths, I loved the way he played," Brown said before training on Wednesday. "It was as though every game was his last and I really admired that he wore that Souths jumper with so much pride."
While Clark noted a lot of people would attribute the team's stop-start season to Burgess' departure to play rugby in England and the injury to Adam Reynolds, he conceded the team's renowned defence needed a sharper edge.
"They say defence wins games and we're working on our defence, and also enjoying playing football," he said. "We're a defensive side and we've let a few points in but we're working hard.
"I don't agree with anyone who says winning the premiership is making it harder. It's a joy to have that title but that's back in 2014, it's a new season and there's a lot of teams who are going OK this year. We're just working hard to win games."
