South Sydney enforcer Dave Taylor has revealed his anguish at being taken out of context in the pre-season, when he said his side had the best forward pack in the NRL.

Before a ball had been kicked, Taylor was splashed across newspapers and television reports and portrayed as big-headed for his comments.

He was criticised for putting undue pressure on his team-mates, even though the quietly-spoken Queenslander would have preferred not to be doing the interview in the first place.

After the Rabbitohs were whipped by the Sydney Roosters in their first match, Taylor's comments were continually brought up, and he was made to pay for his so-called arrogance.

But Taylor doesn't have the personality of an Anthony Mundine or Willie Mason where talking big is part of his game, and the fallout played on his mind for the first few weeks of the competition.

The rampaging Queenslander was afraid of upsetting his new team-mates and has only now cleared his mind of the pressures he was under coming to a new club.

"They chopped my words up a little bit, so I was a little bit disappointed with the way they came out and did it," he said on Monday.

"Not only for myself but my other team-mates thinking I'd said something.

"I think all the journos were all going around trying to find the story about the biggest forward pack.

"I think I said if we play well we'll be up there in the top five in the competition and then they turned around and said we've got the biggest forward pack.

"But that's all over now and I don't have to worry about any talk about that."

Taylor's newfound calm was reflected in his performance on Sunday against Canberra, as the Maroons Origin hopeful led Souths to a miraculous come-from-behind victory.

His destructive bursts down the left-hand side of the field were back and the runaway steam train from Rockhampton said he needed a big performance to remind Queensland selectors that he's ready for the next step.

"Definitely, my last couple of performances over the past couple of weeks haven't been up to scratch, so I just needed something like that to get me going forward," he said.

"It was (my best game for Souths), I felt a lot more comfortable and my body felt a lot more free with my ankle injury - it set me back the last couple of weeks but now I'm starting to feel like I'm back in the swing of things.

"I just knew that (big runs) had to be in my game to pick it up and show everyone I'm still capable of playing like that so I'm really happy with the way I went.

"It's always a dream of mine to play State of Origin, and if not this year then next.

"I'd be happy to go out with just one State of Origin game under my belt. It's a massive goal of mine and I'd really love to achieve it."

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