Sheck effect ready to return
Get ready for the Sheck effect.
The next five weeks offer Roger Tuivasa-Sheck the chance to remind the world of his prodigious talents. If the 2013 World Cup represented his arrival on the world stage, the 2017 edition could bethe revival.
He certainly needs it; coming off a difficult year at the Warriors, where he struggled on and off-field. Although he put his full energy into it, the captaincy seemed to become a burden at times, and his own form suffered as a result.
The 24-year-old still had a decent year in 2017, but the spark and electric running that had made him the poster boy of the NRL wasn’t there, with the Warriors guilty of misusing his talents.
At the Roosters he would hover just behind the ruck, reeling in offloads from the forwards and burning up the middle of the field but this year he rarely got that chance, and it was a sad sight to see him taking constant hit-ups into heavy traffic.
That should change over the next few weeks. Not only is he playing behind a much better pack, but Kiwis coach David Kidwell has given his team more licence. Expect plenty of second phase play and offloads from the Kiwis, which will open up space for the broken field runners such as Tuivasa-Sheck.
Similar to Shaun Johnson, TuivasaSheck has looked a different person since he has come into the Kiwis. He’s still part of the senior leadership group, but is also just another player in the talented squad.
“Playing and training behind these guys I haven’t been feeling much pressure — more excitement with the ball in hand,” admitted Tuivasa-Sheck. “I’ve been working a lot with the middles. We have a lot of ball-playing middles . . . I can run off their hips.
“That’s the exciting part about the way Kiddy wants us to play. It gives me, Shaun, a bit of licence to float in and around players. Just shifting it where we find we can explore the weaknesses of the other team.”
Four years ago, Tuivasa-Sheck burst on to the international stage, with a series of stunning performances at the 2013 World Cup. He scored on debut against Samoa, then dazzled in a 48-0 demolition of France, with one Sydney scribe commenting that “the crowd in Avignon came to see Sonny Bill Williams, but went away talking about Roger Tuivasa-Sheck”. He scored eight tries in that tournament, including a brace in the semifinal win over England.
“It was an emotional time, [especially] my debut against Samoa,” recalled Tuivasa-Sheck. “It was definitely exciting but all I was focused on was making sure I was doing everything right for my role and I think it will be the same on Saturday.”